bam!

That was the quickest tree decorating ever.

We decorated our tree tonight. We even sprang for some wine, and I made dinner, and pretend-homemade cookies later. We ate. And it was good.

But, that reminds me of the really interesting tree we got when I was in my late teens. It seemed like such an ordinary tree. It was green and it had branches. It smelled nice and had a good shape. It went into the tree stand just fine. As is customary, we let it sit there overnight to let the branches find their happy places with plans to decorate the next night.

The next night, after staying in the nice warm house for 24 hours, we found out the tree had already been decorated.

Oh, yes.

What we hadn't noticed when we set up the tree were hundreds of little cocoons and nests.

Oh, yes. This is going exactly where you think it is.

When it was time to decorate, the tree was full of hundreds and hundreds of newly "hatched" preying manti. *willies* And they were EVERYWHERE. And it's really funny because I vividly remember freaking out and yelling for my mom, but I don't remember a thing afterward. I have somehow forgotten the aftermath. Perhaps I ate them.

Not.

I am sure my poor mother had to take care of the whole thing while I pranced around screaming "Oh my Gawd! Oh my Gawd! Oh my Gawd! Oh my Gawd!" and "Ewwwwwwwww!" All I have to say is thank God she grew up on a farm. And I ain't kiddin' about that.