Memorable moments: The twinkle behind the camcorder

Every Christmas morning when Jo and I were growing up, our household fell into a rhythm that felt entirely sacred.

Gran and Gramps would arrive, Mum would pull a hot tray of freshly baked mince pies out of the oven, and the entire family would congregate in the lounge to open presents. Christmas carols drifted softly through the room from Dad’s music system.

Then came the inevitable ceremony within the ceremony: Dad would haul out his heavy video camera, rest it against his shoulder, and hit record.

Without fail, Jo and I would immediately groan and protest. "Oh no, Dad! Put it away! It makes us feel so on show!"

Dad wouldn’t say much in return. His eyes would simply twinkle with quiet amusement, and he would keep on filming anyway.

Because he held his ground, everything was captured for posterity. The camera panned steadily around the circle, recording each of us as our turn arrived to unwrap a gift. There were the sentimental treasures, but mostly there were the gloriously eccentric family jokes: Jo presenting Gramps with a hand-knitted willy warmer, or Gramps handing Dad a small parcel with a card that read, "For a man who likes a bit on the side"—which, to everyone’s relief and laughter, turned out to be a jar of English mustard.

Dad has been gone for a long time now, having passed away in 1995. But those tapes - spanning Christmases, family milestones, and road trips to Zululand, the Drakensberg and Swartberg Pass - have become our family's most cherished possessions. Now digitized and lovingly preserved, they are priceless windows into a world of laughter and youth that we can revisit whenever we need to.

As teenagers, Jo and I thought Dad was just being persistently annoying with his gadgets. In reality, it was pure wisdom. Dad understood something fundamental about time that we were far too young to grasp: that the ordinary, slightly embarrassing moments of family life are the very things that become sacred once the people in them are gone. It remains one of the greatest, most enduring legacies he ever gave us.