Importing AVCHD .MTS Files - HELP

Since having kids, I have quickly become technologically-challenged and am looking for some help.
I have a Canon HG10 videocamera that is AVCHD and all the files are in .MTS format. I haven't been able to use this in years because the hard drive is full. Back in 2008, we were told that we could use FC Express to import the files, so we shelled out good money for it, but we quickly found out that we were given bad information. So since then, the camera has pretty much sat unused and is full of videos of my son as a baby. And now he's 6 and I have also had two baby girls since then. So I would LOVE to empty the camera and put it to some good use.
WHAT DO I DO FIRST???
I have a iMac running OS Lion 10.7.5 and iMovie '11. I'm trying to scour the forums for information, but since having kids I am completely ADD and don't have the patience for reading through outdated threads.
Questions:
1) Is iMovie '10 actually a newer version than iMovie '11?
2) Is it true that iMovie '10 will allow me to import the AVCHD/.MTS files directly off my camera?
3) If yes, is this the best way to retain the quality of the files? (Clearly I'm becoming computer illiterate, so I'm not trying to produce any award-winning documentaries, but I'd like to ensure the best quality possible.
4) I think I have external hard drives full of other .MTS files - not sure how I even got them on the external hard drives. I think I remember this being a problem before because I didn't keep the folder structure or something. Will I no longer have this problem?
THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!

since version 08, iMovie imports AVCHD
just select Import from Camera...
What's new in iMovie 13 aka v10 (which is newer than iMovie11, which was v09 ... no, this silly number scheme is not my fault!!!) is the ability to import mts without it's normal 'packing' as a AVCHD-structure.
It's no good idea to 'strip off' this AVCHD-structure - for future use, just copy the whole SDcard/cam hard-drive content into some folder onto some harddrive ...

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