Last night I gave all of my kids a Chanuka present – their own hot water bottles!  Now, this isn’t a very glamorous gift, and I didn’t expect incredible enthusiasm, but I thought they’d appreciate them.  I was so wrong.

They loved them!  Two of the kids told me it’s the ‘best Chanuka present ever’!  All of them used them right away, took them to bed with them, and walked around all day with them.  And it’s not even so cold inside or outside right now – I think they like the snuggly coziness of it.  My two year old saw them and started asking for his own hot water bottle (I did buy enough for everyone in the family, but I think he’s a little young to have his very own).   I didn’t end up making the individualized fabric covers that I planned, and when I mentioned it, the kids said they don’t want covers.  They like having it against them.  They each wrote their names on their bottle with a Sharpie marker (I was thinking about the covers as a way to distinguish one from another – I’m glad my kids simplified this so much for me). 

I bought them because I thought it would be good to have a low technology way to stay warm.  Dh and I used them for years when we lived overseas, with little heat and in a stone apartment with no insulation.  They came in very handy.  But somehow over time, the one we had disappeared, and we replaced it with an electric heating pad, since we couldn’t find hot water bottles locally.  But I’ve never been totally comfortable with the heating pad, and when I was thinking about various things I could do on a low budget to help everyone stay warm through the winter, this idea popped into my mind.  Fortunately, we’re not limited by location anymore, and can buy what we need on the internet, so I got ten of them from an ebay seller at a very reasonable price. 

(I also used to find hot water bottles very useful when pregnant and having lower back pain.)

Avivah