On Christmas night, after Cindy Togstad and her family have opened their presents, after they’ve eaten their dinner and finished the dishes, they’ll gather in the living room and turn on the TV.

At 9 p.m., they’ll tune in to the WE network, and they’ll watch a program starring themselves.

Togstad and her sons, Will and Terry,  spent a few days last summer with a duo of storm chasers who call themselves the Twister Sisters, and who are the subjects of a series, also called “The Twister Sisters,” on the WE (Women’s Entertainment) network. 

Each episode, the Twister Sisters, Melanie Metz and Peggy Willenberg, take a few guests storm chasing. On the episode airing Tuesday night, Cindy, Will and Terry Togstad are the guests.

As the cameras rolled this spring, the Togstads and the Twister Sisters followed a storm system through Kansas, and they watched it as it swept through Greensburg, killing 11 people and destroying the homes and businesses of hundreds of others.

It was emotional for Cindy, who lost her home near Clatonia on May 22, 2004, to the same tornado that also all but destroyed Hallam.

Three years later, as Togstad watched the Greensburg storm through the lightning, she thought about the people who lived there, about how their lives would be different from that point on.

“I just really felt, really felt a lot of empathy for them,” Togstad said.

She’ll think of them as she watches the show, too.

She hasn’t seen the program yet. The producers of the show sent her a DVD, but they told her not to watch it until after it aired for the first time on Christmas Day.

But Togstad is sure it will be emotional, especially because this is Greensburg’s first Christmas since the tornado.

“I know it’s got to be hard for them,” she said.

That first year following the Clatonia-Hallam tornado was difficult for the Togstad family, too. She’s quick to point out, though, that it gets better.

Her home, a cozy, ranch-style home outside of Clatonia, is rebuilt now. Her boys, who were at home during the tornado, found some closure in seeing first-hand a tornado so similar to the one that claimed their home.

Her family met the Twister Sisters the night of the storm, and the friendship that since has formed is a strong one, Togstad said.

And she hopes that the show on Christmas reminds viewers of what they have, and of what the people of Greensburg lost.

“I think people will probably take a second look at it, that they’ll maybe inquire about what’s going to happen to the community,” she said.

Reach Cara Pesek at 473-7361 or cpesek@journalstar.com.