Taking down the tree

Saturday we took our Christmas tree down. John took the kids to the library while I packed up ornaments and started the "un-christmasing." I had wanted to wait until after the Ukrainian Christmas day, so this Saturday worked in nicely. I was all but finished when the kids came home. Adam walked in first and turned pale and almost horrified. I asked him what was wrong and the first thing out of his mouth was, "The spider!" I had almost forgotten the little spider we put onto the tree before Christmas (the real one we found in the kitchen.) I should have known that after reading that "spider story" to the kids that someone might have a problem with taking down the tree. Especially our animal-lover Adam. Poor kid. John had to do some fancy-footwork to come up with something to get us out of trouble for that one. He asked Adam what spiders like to eat. Adam said, "Bugs that fly." Ok, good. So then John asked, "Do we have flies in our house?" He said "no." So then, John explained that the spider probably went to the neighbor's house because there wasn't a lot to eat here. (I held my breath waiting for Adam to ask how the spider was going to walk through all the snow without freezing to death...) (He didn't. Thankfully!)