Growing up, I was fortunate to have dinner with my family almost every day. Sometimes, the family dinner circle_________to include relatives stopping by. Yet, I knew some friends whose parents got home after dinner or even_________the entire evening. So I_________the quality time around our kitchen table, which witnessed countless valuable_________in my life.

_________,my kids cannot relate to my childhood memories. They have been left to_________with babysitters more times than I would like to admit. My husband and I have_________careers. And we often end up staying at the office way past dinnertime. When this happens too often, it_________the balance of our family.

Apart from suffering from_________,what else can a hardworking family do? I think we can all try to__________our own ways to spend time together. Surely there are days when I’m too busy to share a meal with my family. But I would make efforts to__________and chat later that day,__________       setting aside cellphones every time. And I even find a bedtime reading with my kids much__________.I am also proud to have our “big breakfast” routine every Saturday. My husband serves as the head chef, and my younger son__________       him to make the breakfast.

I am aware that my sons are growing up quickly and will be out of the__________someday. But now, I am happy to have so many wonderful things on my plate.

I never know how well Mother could keep a trust until I was going through her things after she died. I discovered something I had ______ forgotten, something that happened to me as a child.

One night, as I lay in bed ______my sister and I had said our prayers, I recalled the events of the day and how _____ I had behaved towards Mother. “I must make things right before going to sleep,” I thought.

This became my _______of apologizing whenever I talked back or disobeyed. Mother always left a note, but she never spoke out our under-the-pillow messages in front of the family. Even when we were ______, she never mentioned them when we brothers and sister recalled our childhood.

When Mother passed away, I had to go through her personal belongings. In her desk was a bundle of notes tied with a faded ribbon (布条). On top was a message in her handwriting. It read, “In the event of my death, please_______these.”

I ______the packet and glanced at the handwriting on the bottom. To my surprise, I recognized my childish writing, “P.S. Please don’t let anyone see this. Love, Edie.”

My father never kept anything for emotional purpose—except once. I was the only one in my family who cared about baseball and I always _______ watching my favorite players at Yankee Stadium. One winter, I wrote down a _______ of the summer dates and dreamed every night. To my surprise, one evening I saw my father examine it before going out to work.

The following Sunday, he told me, “Let’s put away some money into a _______ each week, and maybe we can go to Yankee Stadium this summer.” I immediately washed out a jar and _______a label: YANKEE STADIUM FUND, 1960.

Each of us _______ to the jar weekly. _______, we still hadn’t gone to a game because my father had to work every Saturday. So one day, I _______ him of the remaining time, and then he _______ me, “Don’t worry and we’ll have a free Saturday.”

On the morning of the last game, I sat waiting hopelessly with no reply of my father who had been to work suddenly appeared and yelled, “I got two tickets!”

I could hardly _______ when we finally sat together, father and son, ________ my New York Yankees. I sat cheering but for my father, all I could see is a face ________ tiredness from working all week.

In 1963, my father died suddenly while working. In his bedroom, I noticed a ________ ticket in his yellowed book, which ________, October 1, 1960, General Admission. My father, who ________nothing for emotional reasons, had decided to keep this, a(an) ________ of our afternoon together.