Mistletoe!

I have many great memories as a child of spending weekends and holidays up at my Grandparents’ property in Camp Verde.  Grandpa connected two 3-bedroom mobile homes together to make the perfect family retreat.  With six bedrooms, two kitchens, & two family rooms, there was plenty of room for tons of aunts, uncles & cousins.  We had fun playing games, swinging in trees, riding motorcycles, fishing at the pond, and rock hopping in the creek.  Every year just before Christmas we would make a special trip to go up and pick mistletoe.  It is actually a parasite that grows high up in the Cottonwood trees.  It’s easy to spot the bright green clumps once the leaves from the tree fall off.  We would take a bunch home, package it, and then sell it to earn some extra Christmas money.

 

This year we discovered the perfect mistletoe spot a little closer to home in Wickenburg.  When we told the kids about it, they were all in.  They have always been little entrepreneurs.  We made a day trip to a fun spot right off the Hassayampa River.  Grandma, Grandpa, Troy, Beth & their kids all joined in.  The river bed was all sand and the water wasn’t more than a foot deep.  It wasn’t too cold, so everyone took their shoes off and had fun playing.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s funny, this year Greg was the crazy uncle going WAY too high up in the trees, and I was the nagging aunt yelling, “Don’t fall!  BE CAREFUL!!”   Ahhhh…memories.  It was tricky finding the right tree with enough mistletoe for us to reach.  We hit the jackpot on the last tree and ended up with plenty to take home.

 

 

 

We finished off the day with a yummy picnic lunch.  Grandma doesn’t make an average turkey sandwich.  They were turkey, blue cheese, jalapeno cranberry relish, apple slices, & field greens on a homemade roll – Mmmmmm!  This spot will definitely be a tradition we will want to come back to every year.

 

 

We didn’t waste any time getting the mistletoe cut and packaged.  The kids were excited to make their Christmas cash!  This was their thing, so we let them decide how they wanted to sell it.  We set up a little table at the entrance to our neighborhood and had TONS of success.  We sat in the car watching and cracking up.  Brady flipped his poster around and did a little dance as cars drove by, Camryn waved and held a piece of mistletoe over her head, and Carter manned the table.  In a matter of 30 minutes, they made 16 sales.  Then they wanted to try a little door-to-door selling.  Nobody refuses three cute little kids selling mistletoe for a buck, especially when Camryn holds up a Hershey Kiss and says, “It comes with a kiss.”  After a couple days of different selling techniques, they had made $100 to split between the three of them!  Not bad!!!

 

 

It’s fun to pass on a tradition that I loved as a kid to my own kids.  As a parent now, I know why my parents started this.  The kids learn the value of hard work, how to make & save money, and most of all how to be generous.  The money they earned will be used to buy Christmas gifts for each other.  We have always given them opportunities to earn their own money and have been proud every year at how willing they are to spend every penny they have on buying gifts.  Watching each other open the presents that they bought with their own money is always a highlight of their Christmas morning.