Former Soil Conservation Service employee and longtime writer Mat Taylor offers his outdoors column for Dispatch Record readers. He can be contacted at (254) 518-2262 or via e-mail at mntaylor@wildblue.net. Friday is Christmas, a day on which people observe the birth of Christ by giving gifts and spending time with family and friends while enjoying good food and fellowship.

Christmas also brings back memories of earlier days.

Just like in the movie “The Christmas Story,” I remember the best Christmas present I ever received. It was a Daisy Red Rider BB gun when I was nine years old.

I shot that gun for many years until it was completely worn out. And I never did shoot my eye out! I used the gun to try to reduce the sparrow population around our house, and in part the BB gun was one reason I have been a hunter for more than 50 years.

I also remember Christmas Day in 1983. The temperature dropped to six degrees. That cold spell lasted about two weeks, and the farm pond on our ranch froze over completely. My son Matthew and his cousin Seth walked all over the pond, as the ice was almost a foot thick.

Normally, members of the family went deer hunting during the holiday, but not that year. It was just too cold.

The first white-tailed buck I killed on the ranch after my parents purchased the land was a nice 8- pointer taken the day after Christmas. As a rule, I never went hunting on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

As I have related before, I had a deer lease on the Shannon Ranch in Crockett County for many years. One year during the Christmas holidays, my wife Nelda agreed to go to the lease with me as she was out of school for the holidays.

First, we drove to Odessa to visit with her aunt and cousins, who lived there at the time. The next day we drove south to Iraan and then east to the lease. I hunted that afternoon with no results. Even though it was a cold night, we were snug in our bed in our 24-foot camper.

Our lease comprised a 4,000-acre pasture, and the pasture was far from a highway, so the nights were completely quiet with no sounds of vehicles, airplanes, trains, telephones, television or radio. The only sound we heard that night was a coyote howling. Nelda said she didn’t sleep well; it was too quiet and spooky.

Being out in the middle of a large ranch in the middle of nowhere, however, was what I liked most about the lease. Several others hunted on the lease, and we all stayed in campers at one location and spent time around the campfire talking and telling stories in the evenings. But there also was plenty of time to spend by ourselves. I believe everyone needs time alone every once in awhile to think, meditate, make plans and talk things over with God.

There is one other special Christmas I remember on the West Texas deer lease. Matthew was attending Angelo State University, and he had come home for the holidays. I do not remember why, but we had our Christmas dinner a few days before Dec. 25. Nelda didn’t object, so Matthew and I drove to the lease on Christmas Eve.

We were the only persons on the lease, as even the ranch employees were gone. Christmas Day dawned clear and cold. Being that it was a special day, we did not hunt but spent the day driving around the ranch and trying to get photos of deer and other wildlife. We jumped a large 10- point mule deer buck very close to the pickup. He must have known he was safe, as he did not run off. I was so intent on admiring him that I forgot to take a photo.

The day was special, as a father and son had the opportunity to spend quality time together. We ate a Christmas dinner of leftover turkey and dressing with the trimmings and, as usual, the turkey and dressing tasted better the second time around.

Even though those Christmases were special, I also remember that Christmas is the day we celebrate the birth of Christ, and I recall many Christmas programs and pageants at the different churches I have attended.

Last Sunday, Kempner First Baptist Church presented a Christmas cantata. Church choir members read the Christmas story and sang carols, while the children and youth of the church portrayed Joseph, Mary, the angels, shepherds and wise men. It was a special service, and everyone in attendance seemed to enjoy the program.

It is my wish that all my readers enjoy a very Merry Christmas with family and friends, and at the same time reflect on their Christmas memories and what the special day is all about.