I was in a store the other day looking at all of the holiday decorations and gift ideas when suddenly something caught my eye…”Is that what I think it is,” I said out loud to myself. I picked it up and sure enough it was an old-fashioned rubber water bottle. POW! I was immediately transported to a very cold Christmas Eve many, many years ago at my grandma and grandpa’s house. During that day it literally snowed four feet and the town in which we all lived was practically shut down. We had been at my grandparents’ house for a couple of days since we were on winter break, and Grandma’s house was the next best thing to being at the North Pole, we all were certain.
We had been building fires, drinking hot chocolate and playing some very intense games of Rummy and Go Fish as Christmas music played in the background and holiday lights twinkled throughout the house! Well, that Norman Rockwell snapshot was totally shot when all of a sudden we couldn’t hear the furnace chugging along any more; and I started to see my breath every time I uttered a word.
Grandpa went down to the basement with a flashlight to check things out and when he came back up stairs (wrapped in two sheets that were hanging in the laundry room), he told us we were going to get a history lesson about what Christmas eve was like for him and my grandma without electricity when they were our age. (“What?!! There is no WAY you were ever our age,” we all screamed with laughter and dismissed that notion immediately!)
But then things got really real. They bundled us all up in layer upon layer, and we all went into the family room which still had a fire blazing. Grandma left the room and Grandpa stoked the fire as he told his usual story about how “we all lived in one room and wore each other’s hand-me-downs.” We could practically recite the stories word for word, which kept us entertained.
Then grandma came in and she was carrying several sorta rectangular rubber carriers of some sort and she began passing them out. Oh, so warm! “Old-fashioned hot water bottles used to keep you warm whether the weather was cold or you had a cold,” Grandma said. I remember mine was a dark pink color and it smelled of, well, rubber. I held it close to my chest and I immediately felt warmer…and somehow safer.
My grandparents talked about how their families would stay warm by cuddling up all together around the fire and singing Christmas carols. Grandma would sleep with the hot water bottle to stay warm at night and Grandpa would carry one in his coat on the way to school when it just didn’t seem possible that the weather could get any colder.
As we all listened and the fire place crackled and popped, we could see the windows were freezing over on the inside a little bit. For some reason, I was never afraid. I was never cold.
Now whether or not all of the stories they told us that afternoon were true, is debatable. However, they kept our minds off of not having electricity for a couple of hours, and we got to spend some quality — albeit it a little forced — time together as a family…just talking and telling stories.
POW! I was right back, smack dab in the middle of the hustle and bustle of selling season once again. I was hugging that water bottle to my chest sort of rocking back and forth. I felt really warm. I felt really safe. The hot water bottle I was holding was dark pink…it smelled like rubber. I thought of grandma and grandpa. Then I thought, if they only had a service plan for their HVAC unit back then….:)
But you know what? Any time I have something wrapped around me — a blanket, a towel…I feel the same warmth and safety that I did when the electricity went out on Christmas Eve at grandma and grandpa’s. Before I left the store that day, I decided to get a hot water bottle for everyone in my family. After all, I have a really cozy story that needs to be shared.
May your holidays be filled with warmth, love and laughter from our family to yours.
