vhs to dvd

I have mastered my new "VHS to DVD" machine! I am taking all of the old video tapes of Christmases, my kids' birthdays and concerts and baseball games, and transferring them to DVD.
The machine is extremely easy to use, but it records in "real time"--meaning two hours worth of video takes two hours to record to DVD. And, what it often means is two hours of me WATCHING "Christmas 1987" or "Allison's 12th birthday"...it is so hard to walk away from those!
Today I set it up to record and came down to watch the ballgame...I went up to check it a little later and found Zachary blowing out three candles on his Ghost busters cake...yeah, I stayed and watched for a long time.
People had warned me that the video tapes would be unusable or perhaps would have disintegrated (let's face it, they are 20 years old!) But every single one has been BEAUTIFUL! In perfect shape--picture and sound! And now they will be even better!
One thing I have to share--First of all, I am IN most of these videos, which is great. And though my hair and clothes are pretty dorky I have noticed that I am laughing so much--I am smiling --I was always so happy! I love watching the interaction between me and my kids...seeing myself at 21, 22, 23 years old with those two little babies loving me...and MAN I loved every single minute of being their mommy. Still do.
SO happy to have all these memories back!