Growing up, my grandpa was adamant that everyone in the family should get one good gift for Christmas. One year he bought me a 410 shotgun, another time he bought me a Craftsman tool box. Over the years I’ve received several gifts from Christmas that I treasure an awfully lot.

My dad bought me a 22 one year. I still have it and it’s one of my favorite guns in my closet. I had an older cousin named JD. He was more like an uncle or another grandpa to me than a cousin. JD was older than my dad.

When JD died, his brother let me choose which one of JD’s guns I wanted. I chose an old Remington Nylon 66 .22 that JD poached a lot of deer with. The forearm had been cut off with a hack saw and it’s kind of a funny looking gun, but it still shoots straight. There’s a lot of stories with that gun, most of them illegal. JD was poor and he hunted for food, there’s no telling what all he killed with that deformed looking gun.

My wife has got me some good presents over the years. She’s bought me tools and other fairly expensive gifts. One of my favorites though is a cheap coffee cup. My son was small and he picked it out for me when he and my wife went Christmas shopping. She laughed and told me he was really excited for me to open it on Christmas Day.

Christmas is coming up and I haven’t thought up any really good gifts to get most of my family. Most years, I have some idea of what I’m going to buy my wife and kids, but this year I’m drawing a blank.

Some years, the gifts I think up aren’t all that expensive. One year, I had each kid a custommade belt. Another, I bought them a hat box for their cowboy hats.

My grandpa always said a Christmas gift shouldn’t be clothes or something you need, it should be something extra. Something you’d never buy for yourself, it’s hard living up to my grandpa’s standard.

The wise men knew Jesus was special, they brought good gifts to Him. I think that’s what my grandpa meant, it’s a worthy goal.

James Lockhart lives near the Kiamichi Mountains in southeast Oklahoma. He writes cowboy stories and fools with cows and horses.