Christmas came two days early for 120 Howard Count residents.
Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland added a little touch of yuletide spirit Friday when its volunteers delivered holiday meals to homebound clients throughout the county.
Elaborately decorated pinecones, colorful Christmas cookies and cards made by local students accompanied the carefully prepared hot and cold dishes.
"We try to do a little something special for the holidays, including this really nice meal," said Brenda Blyweiss, who manages the group's Howard County food preparation site at the Florence Bain Senior Center. "Even though we're not serving food on Christmas, we wanted to make sure our clients had a really nice meal going into the weekend."
Meals on Wheels -- a Baltimore-based nonprofit organization with individual programs in the surrounding counties -- delivers lunch and dinner five days a week to homebound senior citizens and others who are unable to cook for themselves.
With only a handful of paid employees, the operation relies heavily on its volunteers. Some pack the food that is trucked in from the group's central kitchens in Baltimore, and others drive the delivery routes.
The group's Howard County branch and its 140 regular volunteers serve two meals a day to an average of 110 people. Last year, the volunteers donated more than 6,900 hours and drove more than 54,000 miles.
"Without our volunteers, forget it. None of this would happen," said Jeanette Lazarofsky, director of the county's program.
Because Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, the group's special holiday meal was delivered two days early.
The menu featured a cold meal of a turkey sandwich, carrot and raisin salad, and Christmas cookies, and a hot meal of grilled chicken, green beans with almonds and wild rice pilaf.
The volunteers who packed the coolers and hot boxes -- as well asthose who delivered the meals -- said they come back week after week because they enjoy helping the less fortunate.
"It's something you get started doing and, once you see the people in dire need, you realize how important it is that you keep doing it," said Dale Huting, 75, of Ellicott City, who has been delivering meals for nine years. "We provide them important nutrition and make sure they're OK, too."
Added William F. Eckert, 66, of Ellicott City, "I'm just here to help others. With Christmas and the other holidays, we like to add some little things to cheer them up."
Among the small extras delivered earlier in the week were pet food collected by the county's Animal Control agency to help senior citizens feed their pets over the holidays and small boxes of toiletry items gathered by students at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County.
"It's really nice, all of the little things they've added to the meals," said Allie Brotherton, 91, as she sat down to lunch in her festively decorated Savage home. "The people who have been delivering the meals have been kind and caring, and it's keeping me from having to cook for myself."