Grandma's House

A family in Engelwood, Pennsylvania had an unexpected visitor for Christmas this year, which reminded me fondly of "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". As Mary O'Connor was studying in front of the tree, she happened to look up at just the right time, and saw the angel on top of the tree pop off. What really surprised her was the creature that took its place.

"I'm looking at the tree and the angel just pops off," she said. "And a second later, this head just popped up. The eyes were, like, glowing. I was thinking, 'Oh my God!' And I screamed."

Other family members came running. "We looked at it and I thought it might have been a fake," said her father, Michael O'Connor, a Frackville attorney. "But then it moved its head. And I thought 'Holy Jeez. We're in trouble.'"

O'Connor called police, and William E. O'Donnell, a state Game Commission deputy wildlife conservation officer, removed an 18-inch-long opossum from the 8-foot Douglas fir the family had bought, bundled, from a dealer in Seltzer.

I don't know about you, but that would totally freak me out.