A local family is spending the holiday season unwrapping a gift you can't put under the tree.

Earlier this month a fire destroyed the Lewis family's Nekoosa home.

For 16 years Wayne, Penny and Kevin Lewis' called this 2 story Nekoosa house their home.

"We more or less remodeled this whole house..,. and now it's just all gone," says Penny.

An early morning fire on December 16th changed their lives forever.

"I finally fell asleep, and Butch jumped on my bed and bit my hand I woke up and thought he has to go to the bathroom when I got to the bottom of the stairs that's when I saw the smoke," says Kevin.

"Today was the first day I saw the house and I don't know how we got out of there, I really don't God was with us," says Penny.

Penny says since the fire their dog butch now has a new title-- as their 4 legged Guardian Angel and he's still on the job.

"He won't let any of us out of his sight I know he's scared, he doesn't understand where his two playmates are. I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world."

Penny's husband Wayne wasn't at home at the time and they lost 2 pets. But they discovered one family heirloom covered in soot had survived.

"There was a bible from my grand mother from 1898 it's in mint condition."

After that nightmare, one dream did come true. The Lewis' will be spending Christmas in a house in Junction City---instead of a motel.

Penny says hours before the fire she told her husband for Christmas she wanted to go back in time and in a strange twist of fate she got her wish.

"Be careful what you wish for because you might get it. I wanted to go back 10 years but I went back 17 and I didn't expect it that way."

It was the same home they lived in years before moving to Nekoosa.

The blaze may have turned 16 years worth of memories into debris and ash, but Penny says it but it didn't extinguish the love they have for each other.

"We had Christmas presents under the tree and right now that don't matter, that means nothing, I have my family and I'm thankful we're going to be together."

A fund has been set up for the Lewis family at the Paper City Savings Association. Donations are being accepted at the Nekoosa and Wisconsin Rapids locations.