Hearing the good news, the whole family beamed with joy.
Tips
history
Attested in the Qing novel 《镜花缘》 - 穿过牌楼，人来人往，莫不喜笑颜开, describing a festive, sunlit market where every face has brightened up. The sense of a face 'opening' (颜开) into a smile has stayed fixed.
memory
Read the four characters as a sequence: 喜 (joy) - 笑 (smile) - 颜 (face) - 开 (opens). Joy smiles, face opens - a little slow-motion image of a grin.
