A WIDOW AND HER THREE YOUNG CHILDREN IN BRAITHWAITE, LOUSIANA, RECEIVE SOME MUCH-NEEDED HEALING FROM �EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION,� SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25 ON ABC

Mat �the Condor� Hoffman, the Legendary BMX Rider and Six-Time X Games Medalist, Lends a Helping Hand

�Leslie Family� � This week, �Extreme Makeover: Home Edition� travels to Braithwaite, Louisiana, near New Orleans, to give the widow and three surviving sons of a husband/father who had dreamed of renovating their house himself some much-needed healing. In an episode airing SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET), the �EM: HE� design team is able to help a grieving mother and her children turn some of their burden into a blessing and return to a completely transformed home. (Rebroadcast. OAD: 4/3/05)

Robin and Doug Leslie were living an idyllic life with their four young boys and had moved into their dream home, a fixer-upper on eight-and-a-half acres on the banks of the Mississippi. The loving couple had been thrilled when they found the 130-year-old former plantation cottage with its two bedrooms and 1900-sq. feet. Despite being renovated in the 1970s, the historic house had taken a turn for the worse and looked dated with its shag carpeting and wood paneling. Nevertheless, they were excited to invest their time and care into a home that they could look forward to improving over the years. Doug, determined to restore it and bring it back to its original state of grace, was going to make this a home the family could be proud.

But just days before Christmas in 2003, Robin received the life-altering news that both her oldest son, Merlin, and Doug had been killed instantly in a car crash. Robin was left with a broken heart, alone to care for three surviving young children and an unfinished and rundown house. A school guidance counselor by profession, Robin now finds that she is the one who needs help, as does the family home, where the boys have to sleep together in a room downstairs because their dad never got the chance to remodel their bedrooms.

Robin takes one day at a time and knows that life must go on for her and her three young boys -- Spencer, six, and three-year-old twins Brent and Brandon. Though she�s committed to finding a way to finish what Doug started, it was he who was the handy one, and on a school guidance counselor�s salary, she can�t afford to hire anyone to do the work for her. Enter �Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.�

While the design team, contractors and hundreds of workers and volunteers labor to transform the home in just seven days, the Leslie Family goes on vacation in Banff, Canada at the Fairmont Hotel. Among the many extreme changes to the Braithwaite home is a new backyard playground, built with the assistance of legendary BMX rider and six-time X Games medalist Mat �the Condor� Hoffman.

The design team for this episode features team leader Ty Pennington, Paul DiMeo, Paige Hemmis, Preston Sharp and Eduardo Xol. The series is produced by Endemol USA, a division of Endemol Holding. It�s executive-produced by Tom Forman. �Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: is broadcast with Spanish subtitles via secondary closed captioning. This program carries a TV-PG parental guideline.