The best Christmas gift of all

Margaret Nyman admitted to feeling a twinge of doubt standing in front of a coach bus with 28 of her family members at around 1 a.m. on Christmas Day.

"There we were in the parking lot, in the bitter cold, and I thought, 'What are we doing?,'" Nyman said.

They were just about to leave on a mission of mercy to Greensburg, Kan., a town of 1,374 people that was leveled by a tornado in May. The storm killed nine people and seriously injured more than 60 who were trapped under rubble.

Driving into town, the families saw homes ripped from their foundations. Families are still living in government-provided trailers eight months after the storm, she said.

Nyman of Prospect Heights, who has eight children, and her sister Mary Peterson of Northbrook, who also has eight children, planned the trip. To fund it, both families decided not to exchange Christmas presents. They packed breakfasts and lunches for the road and board games to entertain everyone at night.

Other than a traveling case of the stomach flu, the trip was a success, Nyman said.

"I think it was a little gift my son brought from California," she said. "Nine people ended up with the flu at various times."

But even a little virus didn't stop the families from dry walling and picking up debris pretty much nonstop during the five-day visit. The families returned Saturday.

No one missed their usual pile of Christmas presents.

"Even the naturally self-focused teenagers told me it was their best Christmas ever," Nyman said. "That was a little shocking."

They used money they'd usually spend on Christmas gifts to fund the trip, which cost almost $10,000 for bus rental, gas, food and everyone's fee to sleep at a local church.

They also doled out jobs, including one collecting cell phones during daylight hours so the teens didn't spend work hours text messaging the time away. Turns out that wasn't necessary, since there was no cell phone service in Greensburg because the tornado knocked down all the cell phone towers, Nyman said.

"I would love to do it again," she added.