If you read my article about Gingerbread houses last month, then you know that my little nephew has Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and has been doing chemotherapy treatments. He has been such a tough little man through the whole process! Seeing the bright side of everything- and I know that is something he has gotten from his parents.

One well-known side effect of chemo, is of course, hair loss. My little nephew has the thickest, handsomest little head of hair, and months ago he talked about doing a “Handsome Hair” party with my 21 year old brother, who also has a glorious head of hair. Well, the chemo started taking a toll on my nephew sooner than they expected, and his hair started coming out before Christmas. Ever the little optimist, my sister sent us video of my nephew in the hospital shower- he was giggling at the fact that his hair was falling out, and smearing it across his body and boasting about his “hairy” chest. What a little goofball!

My sister decided that they needed to do a handsome hair party before my nephew lost all of his hair, and as a fun way to switch over to completely bald- his hair loss was so significant, that it was time to just shave it all off.

My sister and I came up with some cute ideas to celebrate a “handsome hair” party, and I thought I’d share with you all! Hopefully you never have to deal with a family member going through chemo- but if you do, this was a great way to turn something that could be scary into something really fun!

They played pin the hair on the bald guy, which was super easy to put together- they all just drew hair (and each person had their own little creative twist) and tried to put it on a poster on which my brother-in-law drew a big bald man.

They bowled- using hair products (that my nephew was super excited to not have to use anymore) and little clementines that my sister drew faces on- little orange bald guys!

They ate sour patch kids, but of course- they bit the hair off first!

They had string cheese, with the top part peeled down to look like crazy hair, and they had noodles served on top of snacks - to look like curly crazy hair!

And they decorated gingerbread men. They gave them all heads of handsome hair- and then proceeded to lick the frosting off to turn them into baldies!

I thought this was just the cutest thing ever. Once he was shaved, you could tell my nephew felt a little sad about it, but I think having this big fun party helped him to embrace it a lot easier than he would have otherwise! And now they have some fun, cute memories to go along with the inevitable hair loss of chemotherapy.

My sister and my nephew are my heroes. They have been incredible to watch through this whole thing. So much faith, and finding the good amidst the bad. I would hope I would handle such a trial with as much faith and dignity that they have! Here’s to more bright moments amidst the dark ones.