My 2 Cents: Holiday Home Movie Viewing

Want to bring your family together for a couple of hours? Then plug in a home movie. We've laughed for hours over the past few days.

I hadn't had them converted to DVD because of the cost, and consequently we didn't watch them much because it was such a hassle. So we're having a few [tapes] at a time dubbed over. It was so worth it. If you don't have a video camera, get one. You can find them for as little as $100.

After watching hours of our home movies, here are a few tips I have:

For those of you with young children, make sure you get lots of good audio, because trust me you're going to miss those little voices when they start changing.

You'll of course shoot the events your family's involved in the birthdays and holidays, but some of our most precious moments occurred around the dinner table, just playing in the backyard, or at bath time.

And don't hesitate to be an interviewer when you're shooting video of small children, ask them what they're doing. Their explanations are priceless.

Finally, one warning: I stopped one movie we were watching where I was teaching the kids how to sled to share a teachable moment, about continuing to trust Dad's advice even now as teenagers.

I was very proud of my metaphor, until I restarted the movie and one of the kids crashed into a brick mailbox.