I know this is not along the line of this topic - but thought I would ask what each of you would say.

For me - it was having my mom with me last year for Christmas as that was our last together "on this side". Our next one together will be at the birthday party for the Babe with a host of others I would like to be with again.

I'd have to say my best X-mas gift was last year's: My wife had me served divorce papers on X-mas eve at my studio!





I'm offically a "Divorice-e" now!





Merry Christmas and have a great Holiday Season to all my fellow AR members!!!

Knowing that 12/30/04 is my wife's last chemo treatment...and looking forward to a clean slate so we can spend a few more years together. This is her second go-around in 5 years and she's giving me a whole new appreciation of the old: "Stick and stay and make it pay...". She is one tough lady and won't give up without one hell of a fight...

We all wish you both the best and wish you well for many years to come. This time of year more than any other will allow you to see the great gift you have in life and good health.


My favorite worldly gift had to be from 1959 when my dad handed me my first real rifle- A Winchester 30-30 '94. Before that I had borrowed 22's and others I don't even remember to do any hunting I had tried. My own first "REAL" rifle sent me off to another world. I used it to kill squirrel, jackrabbit, as well as snakes and lizards for a couple of years on a regular basis. My first deer dropped to that '94 in Utah. Quite the gift from someone who didn't even hunt until I took him with me 3 or 4 years later.
Frank

That is a very hard one, since nothing momentos has occurred to me on Christmas (aside from of course the reason for the holiday and the fact that He chose to die for people like me), then I would have to say a Titanium and allow 38spcl. taurus that I got a few years back. of course I bought it for myself, but still wrapped and opened it.

alas, the days of buying my own gifts are over, but the wife is more than generous and seems to always forget how undeserving I am.

Red

get C.Wrigths" Shooting the british double Rifle" in 2000. no doubt, this is the best ammo/reloading book ever made.

I'm going with a material Christmas gift. A few weeks ago I bought a Krieghoff double with multiple barrels. I brought it in to Krieghoff to have it restocked left handed. I'm picking it up Wed. I guess to put under the tree. I'm so excited, I can't wait to see it.

Red, There's nothing wrong with you. Everyone likes to open a package, even if you wrapped it up and gave it to yourself. If I do that, should I wrap all the pieces sepately or put them all back in the case they came in and open it all at once.
My wife is taking credit for this one. She says she bought it for me. I love her for just thinking that way.
Wed. better get here fast, I'm about to bust.

Christmas when I was 8 years old and it came from my mother. Back in the day Winchester made single stroke break action pellet rifles. This one came in a red and black plaid box with the famous WINCHESTER name in script printed on the top. It was a delux version 22 caliber. It was high luster blue, had a walnut monte carlo stock with cheek piece and recoil pad, a micro adjustable target back sight, a hooded front sight and I believe shot about 850fps. We lived within the city limits but near a huge block of over grown pasture and woods that contained a few rabbits, squirrels, quail and dove. Up to that point I had been "hunting" with my Daisy BB gun, and you could kill a rabbit with a close perfect head shot but squirrels were much too tough. That pellet rifle was like a magnum what with the extended range and increased killing power and opened up a whole new world for me. I could kill rabbits and squirrels with body shots and birds hit with it stayed hit. I killed a ton of small game with that gun and learned to hit bunnies on the run and even made a few lucky shots on quail as they flushed. I had always been a hunter, but that gun turned me into a killer and was the best Christmas gift I ever received.

Perry

easy question 35 years ago my wife said yes

Just bought myself a new Infinity G35 Coupe. Merry Christmas to me!!!!!!

That is easy for me, my first shotgun, a single shot Savage .410, that I nearly rubbed the finish off of that Christmas when I was nine years old. I still get a glow thinking about it. I traded that shotgun for enough shells to hunt Quail with later in life when I had to scrape for a week to come up with $5.00. I always regreted that swap. Today I have many rifles and shotguns and they all are important to me, but I would still love to have that old Savage back. Good shooting

I think this one may be. After a great trip to Namibia in July, my son and I decided to assist a new school in the village near where we hunted and where our PH's wife assists. Between friends, family, and a few AR posters, we've raised about $600 of school supplies to send to Kamanjab, Namibia. My kids's schools have agreed to assist. It's a lot more gratifying than more stuff under the tree for me. As it is, I'd mostly like more time to use the stuff I already have. Bob

Last year Santa brought me a scoped 9.3x74R Chapuis double rifle with a set of 3" 20 gauge barrels in a fitted case. The scope is a 3-9x Schmidt & Bender rail mount.

I was simply speechless. ;>

Very nice rig. Took a deer just after Christmas with it. Has taken another deer and a hog since. Is a superb bird gun with the 20 gauge bbls.

Unfortunately, it wants to go to Africa now ... along with its bigger brother the .470 NE Searcy. Trying to figure out how to see that the fellas get their sabbatical. Accompanied, of course.

In reading over all the "presents", I was sure glad to see so many replies of wonderful things that have happened, and not just a new toy of some sort.

All I ever ask for is "Time to play with my toys". Time, means being able go to the rifle range without any hassle from anyone at home.

The last several years, that is exactly what I have been given.

I go to the range close to 30+ weekends a year now, with no hassles. (Considering some bad weather, and 8 to 10 weeks gone hunting or out of town, I do pretty well).

One Christmas, my faternal grandmother gave me signed copies of Jack O'Connor's "The Best of Jack O'Connor", and "The Last Book". Most important of all, she enscribed them to me herself, and she's been gone fourteen years now....

Another really special gift was a wonderful Randall 'Trout & Bird' knife with a genuine African elephant ivory handle that somehow, someway my witty and resourceful wife found for me and placed under the tree. When I opened that box, I was stupified, not only because I love Randall's, especially the smaller ones, but also because I've never seen a T&B version with an ivory handle before.

I'll be taking that beautiful knife with me to Tanzania this next season.........

AD

Several things come to mind. The first was when I was about 9 and the Sears truck delivered a long thin box. Turned out it was the Western Field bolt action 22 I had been drooling over for months in the Christmas catalog. Still have it.
The second was when I woke up in the hospital Chistmas day in 1974 after my brother and I rolled his Jensen-Healey the nite before. The present was that I woke up. Just one of the reasons I thank God everyday that I'm still on this side of the grass.
Now since my kids are living long distances away, it will be this Christmas because it might be the last time we get together with just us. It won't be long before spouses will be pulling them off to other family obligations.
Merry Christmas to all my friends at AR.
Russ

The year before my adopted dad died a flight of geese pitched in to the pond behind his house. He had loved wild goose meat all his life. I low crawled up the backside of the dam, then stood up and said "morning girls" to the startled gaggle. The pond was surrounded by trees and they had to fly past me to get out of there. Not all of them made it. That night we ate goose and watched the flames dance in the fireplace.

JCN

When I was 13 my Christmas present was a complete reloading set-up. The RCBS Jr. press has been upgraded to bigger/better, but I still have it, the dies, and the other stuff I got that morning nearly 40 years ago. It was my best Christmas. That equipment helped put me on a path that I am still on. It loaded the ammo I shot my first deer with and the ammo I used at Camp Perry in my teen years. 'Twas a good investment of my folks hard earned money.

Red, I just got back with my Krieghoff. The left handed stock is magnificent. It came out better than I imagined. I find it so hard to wrap up now and put it under the tree after drooling over it for the past hour. Christmas better get here fast. The truck is loaded and pointed at the shooting range.
How am I ever gonna thank my wife properly for this one.

That's easy,
A ladies Krieghoff .
JCN

Both last years and this coming Christmas. Last year I spend Christmas with my brother/sister in law and my niece and her youngest 2 children. The last time I spend a Christmas with children I was one. It was fun to see them open up there presents. My grand nephew got his first rifle. Plus I found a Ruger 416 Rigby at a gun show the weekend before - excellent present to myself. We all have a picture of my brother with his 416, me with my 416 and grand nephew with his 22, taken on Christmas night.

This year my sainted Mother gave myself and my brothers/sister a check for $10K. So between paying off all the credit cards, sock a couple thou for a rainy day, I see a new rifle in my future.

Thats and easy one, family and friends and in that order, I have been blessed with both, what more could anyone ask for......

Easy one for me December of 2001 My Daughter was born AND my oldest son was legaly adopted . Now I have a third child, and life could not be happier in my home.

One Christmas I remember very clearly and cherish is one early christmas morning about 60 years ago, I had a beatiful little cold black gelding tied to a post in the corral with my saddle and everything on him..I got on him and my a$$ exploded, about the 5th jump I ate a lot of corral dirt...My dad just smiled, his face lively with early morning Christmas cheer and said, "Son,your just gonna have to learn to get along with him, he'll be your friend"...I did, and he was my friend for many years and he always pitched a fit from time to time but we got along real well and between the two of them, they made a man out of me..They are both gone now, but not forgotten, about this time of year I remember those good times when things were rough following the great depression, but you know, I never knew it was rough makeing ends meet, I was living the cowboy life and thought everyone ate beans, biscuits and ate the kings deer everyday...