Hey, That's Me!

As an early Christmas present to myself, I had my family's home movies transferred to DVD.  The quality is crap (8mm film projected onto a wall and then filmed again with a camcorder to get the footage on VHS circa 1986) but the content is pure gold.  To see myself at Natalie's age, thrilled with Christmas, hysterically laughing as I pour a bucket of water on my mother's feet, doing all the silly things that little ones do...it's amazing and wonderful.  It is a reminder that I was once free of cynicism, skepticism and all the negativity that I fight against in myself now.  This footage is like a gift from my father and I am so thankful that he took the time to capture the past so that I can enjoy it in the present.

I picked up the DVDs an hour ago so I haven't gotten too far into them.  At this point on the first disc, I'm about to turn 3 so Jonathan wasn't born yet and my Dad has been behind the camera in all of the footage thus far.  I can't wait to see them both.  Even though the film is ridiculously snowy/blurry and there is no sound, I cannot wait for them to come on screen and light up the room with their smiles.  Christmas is all about family and in some small way, I'll be spending it with mine again.