Merry Christmas Li'l G This would be your third, but technically you've only been aware of the last two.  Finally purchased a camcorder to capture the moments of Christmas '06 and beyond.  Christmas of 2005 is appropriately told through silent stills.    At three months old you were still an otherworldly being.  Your eyes were filled with constant awe, accompanied at times by confusion.  You were still a miracle to us.  I wonder what we were to you in those days.  Ah, but last year, you hit your stride.  It was still all new (certainly the Pennsylvania venue was an unexpected twist), but after a few opened gifts you seemed to get the general idea.  Thank God for that camcorder.  You just started walking that October, and here you were running and dancing with your granma and Aunt B.  Good times. The thing about camcorders is you have to have a place to save those little tapes.  There was a moment of dark horror after we returned from PA and I could not immediately put my hands on the Christmas tape.  My hands gratefully closed on it last week, and I made a mental note to replay it for myself Christmas night. The day itself was all about you, and capturing your first real West Coast Christmas.  Mom had the tree up way early this year.  I think it went up the day after Thanksgiving.   I wonder if your memory goes back a year, and if there were any associations from last Christmas to this.  You were hardly talking then.  Different story this year.   The obligatory shots were taken - you opening up your first package...then your second...then your forty-seventh.  You playing with the boxes.  I was pretty much going on autopilot by then.  While my hands were on the camera, my mind was on a Christmas over forty years gone.   The camcorders in 1964 were much smaller than today's.  They did not capture as much detail.  The color isn't very well rendered, and the sound only comes in sporadically.  I didn't even know I had been recording at the time, but the tape playback was unmistakable.   I watched my son hold up his new pajamas, and I remembered my own.  I watched his face and saw my own.  I saw his mom and saw my own.  His second Christmas.  My fourth.  His last big box was a drum kit.  I think I got mine in '66.  You're a better drummer at two than I was at six.  That too, is now part of the Christmas '07 archive. I'll admit it.  I am given to moments of profound sentimentalism, especially this time of year.  I hope that is a gift I've passed on to you.  It can be painful at first, but over time you welcome these moments as opportunities to reflect on what was and be able to feel the warmth embrace you across the years.   As you slept that night, I fulfilled my promise and reviewed your Christmas of one year ago.  You must have added over six inches to your height in the ensuing twelve months.  You didn't know who the Wiggles were yet, but Fatboy Slim got you moving your feet!  The house in PA seems so foreign now, hard to believe that it's only been six months since we've left.  The year could not have appeared more distant if the video was shot in sepia.   My little guy.  Dancing around a kitchen three time zones and twelve months away.  So many changes.  More to come.  And I'll be there to record them all.  Merry Christmas, Giovanni.  GDAD