What's The Best Gift You Received This Year?

My favorite gift by far that I got was from my grandfather. He got me four volumes of the Time-Life World War II series. He got me "Prelude to War", "Blitzkrieg", "Battle of Britain", and "China-Burma-India".

I've heard that those are must haves for anybody that's interested in anything WWII history related and that they are kind of hard to track down at times. I was so ecstatic when I saw them and I was incredibly thankful.

A little backstory on my grandfather, he was an Army brat, his dad reached the rank of full-bird Colonel in the Army, serving in WWII and Korea. My grandfather lived in Ft. Benning, Germany (can't remember exactly where), Japan, Ft. Lee, and many other places. Cool story about his time living in Ft. Lee, he got to listen to the D-Day landings on the radio during school. He said that day was one of the most stressful days he ever lived through while on Ft. Lee. He jumped horses in the Imperial Palace after the War and he's got some cool pictures of him jumping. He's somehow got a USSR flag, a Korean flag, and a UN flag all dated around the time of the Korean War. He's also got this incredible quilt that is full of different unit patches (some Nazi patches as well) that soldiers gave him back in those days.

My grandfather loves this country so damn much, he's one of the most patriotic people I've ever met and he's the biggest reason why I'm infatuated with military history. He wanted to join the Army like his father and pretty much all the men in his family before him but his asthma was too bad that they wouldn't take him. It really kinda pained him when I told him that I joined the Marine Corps with that interservice rivalry but he was the first person to shake my hand on the parade ground at Parris Island on graduation day and say "Congratulations, devildog."

He's got parole papers from his great-grandfather from the Civil War after Vicksburg and he's got a family history on my mother's side (he's my mom's dad) of my family tracing back to pre-Revolutionary War periods in America.

He's a member of the Sons of the Confederacy and I'm pretty sure Sons of the Revolution as well.

He's an ardent LSU Tiger fan and has been a football season ticket holder for I don't know how long and it kills him to miss as many games as he has the passed few years due to health reasons. He's on oxygen 24/7 now and had to pass the tickets down to my mom and dad. He still makes a game or two every year to meet up with his old fraternity brothers but he just can't handle the stress of the ballgames and tailgating anymore. It sucks because I would put him up there with any LSU fan out there and challenge them to be as big a fan as he is.

TL/DR: My grandfather is one of the best men in the world and got me an incredible Christmas gift and I'm going to miss him terribly when he's gone.