From our office paper Christmas party, we had bags and bags of holiday decor that we were going to toss out, but after thinking on it a bit we thought perhaps someone else could benefit from them? We put out the call on Instagram to see if anyone would like to nominate someone and you man, you guys responded. We received dozens of emails from people nominating their loved ones and why they could use some Christmas cheer. Our hearts exploded. I was in tears for a good two days as I read all the emails. You know what? Life sucks. It does. I don’t mean that in an Eeyore, depressing, hopeless way. I do believe in hope and I’m a naturally optimistic person, but it doesn’t excuse the fact that life. Just. Sucks sometimes. And people are fighting the most terrible things. My heart cries hearing about it. Though I believe we all go through our own battles, I also believe we go through them at different times in our lives so that we can help support each other when we need it. We also thought it was a good time to get in on the #LIGHTtheWORLD campaign. There’s something we can all do, in our own way, that can help someone who just may be needing it. We just gotta take that chance.
Alexis Shaeffer nominated her friend, Ashley Parks, to receive some Christmas cheer. Ashley is 31 years old, married with 4 children here in Utah, and recently went through her last treatment of chemo for breast cancer. In addition, she is due for a double mastectomy and radiation in January. Mary, our business manager here at Lars, recently had a best friend diagnosed with the same diagnosis so the news was a little too real for us over at the office. We arranged a time when Ashley’s family was out of the home. With Ashley in bed in the other room, we tip toed into the home and with an hour, we hung our paper chains, lanterns, oversized stockings, assembled snowball sculptures, and hung the Dresden wreath and then promptly split!
We couldn’t officially meet Ashley and her family, but we did hear afterwards that her 7 year old daughter, Kate, “straight up lost her mind” when they entered the house and ran around the room for a solid 5 minutes. Everyone joined in on a “snowball” fight using the paper balls we left in their firewood basket (umm, you’re welcome?!?!? ;). We heard from Ashley via email and she said it was a “Christmas miracle”. “I was feeling rotten so only glanced at it it, smiled and went back to bed, but I loved listening to the sounds of my family playing and laughing together in our new winter wonderland.”
Thank you Parks family for letting us came and wreak some Christmas havoc on your place. We hope it bright some element of cheer to your home. Ashley, you’ve got some cheerleaders rooting for you from all over the world.
Spreading goodness isn’t something reserved just for us. We can all play a part in helping just one person at any time of the year. I encourage you to find someone who might need a boost and be that boost to them.