When our youngest son was little, his favorite toys were “happy meal toys”. We collected them when we ______ at the different fast-food restaurants. He ______ his bookshelves with them. Often I would carefully remove them out of his hands when he ______.

As he got older, he felt ______ when asking for the children’s meal, so I would ______ the happy meal and give him the toys for his collection. ______ he finally gave up the idea of ______ happy meal toys, I continued to pass them on to his children.

When I visited them, I hid the toys in different parts of my huge ______ so that each day when I was there, they were allowed to ______ one toy to play with. These little toys seem to be a bigger ______ than any other big or expensive gift that I could bring them.

Without really trying, I guess I created a little ______ between us. They knew they could always find a happy meal toy stuck ______ in their Nana’s luggage (行李).

Whether it is a happy meal toy, the smell of cookies, or giving a book to a child, children need a ______ with their families.

Today, families are often spread across the country or even the globe. Keeping long-distance family ties requires some ______ but is well worth it.

When we mix love with every moment, even something as ______ as a happy meal toy can create sweet and lasting memories.

As a child ,I hated going to the store with my mom. Whenever my mom asked if I wanted to go______, I would say , “No, mom!’Who wants to get car sick and walk near the frozen section(冷 冻区)? That’s the______ part --- the freezers and smell of seafood. Why would any mom____their only child this way? I hated it. _____ , I did get cookies, French fries, and chocolate. This____ treatment went on until I left for Culver Academies.

Here at Culver, I had no chance to walk around with my mom and get snacks I wanted. I found myself stuck(被困住) at the _____ whose store had high prices for a slice of cheese. I ___walking near the frozen sections with my mom.

My first vacation home, my mom asked what I wanted from the _____ , knowing I wouldn’t go.

“Can I ___？”I asked with a look of _____ because I wanted to spend time with her. I also felt sad while asking _____ I took all those _____for granted in my childhood.

I ____ come home now. But when I do, I ____ to go with her every time. If not, I always say, “Love you mom. Drive safe!” I run to the gate and watch her______.I wave ,smile, and ____ that I stay home.

As a child , I hated going shopping with my mom, but now I ____ it. I like walking near the frozen sections of stores now--- it gives me a(an)______to stay with her. When I go with her, I really______ every detail in our trips. Now I’m eighteen and will be in college soon. I hope she knows how much those eight minutes’______ to the store meant to me .Thanks mom.

In the back of my closet, there is a small cardboard chest that has followed me to every one of my new addresses. Until now, the only _________ contents in it are three wrapped _________ marked in my mother’s tidy handwriting: “Engagement”, “Wedding” and “First Baby”.

When I was three, my mother learned that she had advanced breast cancer. When I was seven, she had begun _________ a gift box for me. Inside, she packed presents and letters for the _________ of my life she was going to be missing — driver’s license, graduation, and every birthday until the age of 30.

My mother died ten days before our _________ birthday. That morning, when I turned 12 and she would have turned 49, I woke up early and opened the package _________ “12th Birthday”. A white card curling around the present _________: “I always _________ a birthstone ring when I was a little girl. Your Granny finally bought me one and I loved it more than I can say. I hope you like it, too.” I put on the ring and _________ her writing with my fingertip.

On the morning of my high school graduation, a __________ of pearls appeared as I opened the wrapped present. Her note read: “There seemed to be a __________ in my family that when girls graduated from high school, they received pearls.” I wore the pearls that afternoon as I took the stage to accept my diploma.

Year after year, my mother __________ forward in time to meet me. When I was a child, opening the next package felt like a treasure __________. As I grew older, her message met me like guideposts in a dark forest. If her words couldn’t point the way, at least they offered the __________ of knowing that someone had been there before and that I have been __________, wildly loved.