The Christen family plans to spend Christmas together, just the four of them, at home.

They decorated a plastic Christmas tree, which they arranged in the living room of their house in Lincoln.

“We’re going to keep it quiet and normal,” said Colleen Christen. “In the last six months, things have not been normal.”

Her husband, Ben, serves in the military and returned from South Korea on Dec. 14 for a brief stay, so they want some private family time. Plus, their 2-year-old daughter, Caroline, cannot be around people who might have a cold.

Caroline’s birthday was a few weeks ago, which was celebrated in the hospital as she underwent treatment for neuroblastoma, an aggressive cancer of the nervous system. The cancer strikes about 650 children a year in the United States and has a 10 percent survival rate.

~ Sena Christian