If you decide to stick with the PC, you may want to take a look at Adobe Premiere Elements, which offers a lot of the creative functionality of the full Premiere Pro software, but with a more user-friendly interface and at a fraction of the price (it manages this by stripping out all of the pro-level functionality that most users never touch). You can get it for about $99, and you can get a bundle with Photoshop Elements for $149…a great deal for all the power you’re getting with these two programs.

On the Mac side of the equation, it’s really hard to beat the bang you get with the already-included iMovie - there’s a lot of capability built right into this program, which ships for free with all new Macs. If you want to step up, you can get a lot accomplished with Final Cut Express HD, which is about $300 (as opposed to paying $1200 for the full version, which is definitely overkill for home movies)…again, it has a lot of the capabilities found in the full version, but with some of the higher-end pro features removed.