Merry Christmas 2005

It's funny, the things you keep from childhood. My grandfather loved making home movies. He took our first movies on film, then got a video cassette camera as soon as it was available. He wore a big battery pack on his belt, and the tape went in a recorder that he carried with a shoulder strap. The camera was connected to the recorder with a heavy cable. He would always start our Christmas videos by having us say "Merry Christmas 1979" or whatever year it was.

Papa passed away in 1988. This year I shot a short video of my daughter, and without thinking I had her start off with "Merry Christmas 2005." I shot it in video mode of my little Pentax Optio WPi that my wife gave me for Christmas. It is about the same size as the handle on that video camera I remember from my childhood. He would have loved these cameras we use now.