Remembrance: All Wrapped Up Like Baby Jesus

When I was a little girl, my parents would tuck me in at night and wrap me up like Baby Jesus in the "swaddling clothes." As I grew older, I gradually began to forget about it until I moved to Prague.

In Prague, I lived in a pretty typical Soviet-era flat. One of the "unintended consequences" of this was the heating situation. There was no heat in the shoe room or the bathroom and, due to an old heating unit, there was only minimal heat in the kitchen. Further complicating this was a recurring bout of bronchitis that prevented me from running the heat in my bedroom because it dried out my throat and kept me up coughing all night.

That means we're down to one room left with adequate heating - the living area. So here was my strategy. As soon as I got home from work I would turn on the wall heater in my living room and close all the doors leading to it. Then I would go cook supper and take it back to my nice getting-toasty living area to eat. I bundled up to wash the dishes, then went back to the warmth for the rest of the evening. About an hour before bed time I would open the door to my bedroom so that the heat could waft in. Then time for bed.

Now it was COLD in Prague in the winter, especially at night. And even with all of my strategizing, I still had to contend with 14 foot ceilings and unsealed doors and windows. I often wore two pairs of fleece pajamas to help me stay warm.

One morning I woke up from one of those really, really cold nights and couldn't move. During the night I had wrapped myself so tightly in my duvet that it took more than five minutes of rolling an inch to the right and working the blanket loose and then rolling an inch to the left to do the same to try to untrap myself from my predicament. It was a workout - and I was even panicking a little because I thought: "Will anyone come rescue me if I can't get out? . . . Do I want anyone to know that I needed rescuing because I somehow wrapped myself up like Baby Jesus? . . . How will I ever explain this - girl traps herself in her own bed due to burrowing into her covers? . . . Ahhhhhhhh."

But just as I was about to lose it - a glimmer of hope - I got one hand semi-free and was able to loosen the duvet the rest of the way. Whew!

After that, I began wearing long johns under my 2 layers of pajamas and slept happily every after.

Now, you may be thinking, what on earth brought that story to her mind? She is now living in England where they have nice radiator heat - in all the rooms. Well . . . it's because I did the same thing again earlier this week. But this time it was because I forgot to turn the heat on - I mean it's May! But I'm a fast learner, so tonight will be just fine.