A few weeks ago, my husband and I picked tomatoes growing in my father-in-law’s orderly garden. He had stuck to planting tomatoes for more than 40 years. I have been _________ by his determination, not to mention the considerable _________, as he would prepare for yet another growing season. After placing seeds into soil, he would water, weed, and talk to them every day, waiting with _________ for their progress. To him, the garden is everything.

But this past summer, my father-in-law had to _________the garden. He had become _________, and is now resting at home with serious heart failure. His garden is now _________ and full of weeds. We picked the best tomatoes in August, but now the garden seems to have been _________

A few weeks ago, my husband took the biggest tomato he could find from his father’s garden, squirted (挤出) it free of its seeds and laid them out to dry. His father used to make this _________at the end of each season. The seeds, a way of _________ the healthiest tomato growth, would promise a successful harvest.

My husband paid no attention to the garden before. I know why, after all these years, he keeps these __________. Will his father __________Christmas? Will anyone plant that garden in the spring when he is __________ not here? How much time do we really have with him?

We do not know the __________ but I do know what the seeds will __________. There will be more than just tomatoes. Anything that comes from them — any sauce, any meal, any memory — will always be __________.

The holidays are simply the best time of the year._______, for those of us who use a wheelchair, there are some unique_______to be overcome when celebrating with family and friends.

When I was 13, I_______my neck in a car accident. Paralyzed（瘫痪）from the chest down, the_______weeks and months that followed were an unbelievable whirlwind（忙乱）of activity. Just days before the_______,the biggest challenge in my life was making sure to turn my homework in_______.

But in just an instant it all_______. My family and 1 were forced to_______surgical options, where to go for_______， and how to pay for everything. All the while, I was________as my world turned upside down. The________physical recovery center was several states away, so when holidays rolled around, taking a trip home to celebrate was near the________of our list. What I would come to learn is that a celebration with family was________what I needed.

My family surprised me with a________that Christmas. I couldn’t travel________, so everyone came to me and turned the small apartment in a________city into a warm home. They brought more food than anyone could hope to eat and plenty of________. More________, for the first time, I felt________again. All of a sudden I was sitting at the same kids’ table and laughing with my cousins like________had happened.

I worried I was saying no to my kids too much. I don’t think there’s anything _______with “no”. In fact, I love it. But it started to feel like my kid viewed me_______one thing standing in between her and fun. So I came up with a_______experiment: one week of saying yes to anything my kid asked for (within reason)._______, I made some rules.

I_______my week of Yes, but quickly realized that my_______of saying no was deeply rooted in my brain. I went to_______ my 6-year-old daughter after camp, and she _______an ice cream in a nearby stand. I was about to “no” this without_______. But then I remembered I had to say yes for a week and I____________. She sweetly thanked me. She must have sensed ____________ was going on because she asked if she could ____________the television as soon as we walked into the house. “Yes,” I said. But I was able to____________her to one episode (剧集), and she turned the TV off without____________.

Then it was mid-week, and we settled into a cycle of television and ice cream. This is, ____________, all my daughter wants in life, and I’m____________at how often I’ve said no before. Before bedtime, she asked to go to the beach, ____________ the next day we had fun searching for seashells and racing with the waves.

At no time during the week did my daughter ask to do anything absurd (荒谬的) or____________. Saying yes allowed her to grow into herself, helped me to lighten up and relax as a____________and also offered new____________ for us to connect, play and bond.