Say Cheese!

People are told to say 'cheese' because that word is supposed to get us to show our teeth if not smile when it's pronounced.

Frankly, I stare shamelessly into shop windows, not saying anything to myself, when I take my self protraits. Mostly you can only see a bit of an outline of the head (with hair spiking uncontrollably) in these pictures but I detect a frown in this recycled (2005) self protrait.

Over at Holidailies, the writing prompt of the day is "What's the one food it simply wouldn't be [your winter holiday of choice] without?"

Nothing about Christmas (my upbringing was all birth of Christ and Santa) causes me to bust a gut to get some certain food. As a kid growing up I loved my grandmother's homemade rolls and cinnamon rolls. Also her dressing and gravy. The gravy was giblet gravy with bits of boiled egg and, well, giblets...the chopped up liver, gizzard, heart etc. that used to come with your turkey. I wish I could have gravy like that, but I don't think it would make the holiday. I'd need my grandmother or mother around making the gravy and the homemade rolls to really kick me into a holiday mood, I guess. I think about them making that stuff all the time, too, not just this time of year. My grandmother baked chicken and made dressing and gravy year round. She always had the giblets because she had taken the chicken's life that day and had all its edible parts.

I can live without giblet gravy and cornbread dressing. I can live without homemade bread or rolls.

The food I can't live without? The food that I gotta have every day? Cheese. Yeah, cheese makes me smile because I love it. I live on it. I have the extra twenty-five permanent pounds to show for it.

But if you are making that giblet gravy...let me know. I might drop by.