Whenever I recall my childhood, there is one thing I remember clearly. My father used his_____to let my mother_____her parents who lived far away. There was just my younger brother and myself in the_____. One evening, our father came home and there was no_____, not even a piece of bread. My father had no money and he was as_____as we were. My brother and I went to bed without having anything.

___I knew from the expressions on my father’s face that he could not_____us be hungry for long. He left the house, and about two hours later he_____and woke us up. He had two small potato pies in his hands. I didn’t know where he got the money for the food but somehow he_____to find a way. It was clear that he wanted to get his children_____.

My father did not eat and had_____all day but he sat there and felt_____at seeing us eat. This has always stuck in my_____. At that moment, I felt moved knowing that he tried his best not to let us_____, and he wanted us to know he was always there ____________ us.

In_____times, I think, it is important not to_____weakness but strength._____the mother is the cement(黏合剂)that_____a family together, then the father is the steel that strengthens(加固) that cement.

It is his values and_____that have carried me forward and helped me deal with my own problems in life.

For a long time, I thought a present and a gift were no different. I grew up in a household where presents_________special occasions, say there were always presents for Christmas and our birthdays.

So when I married Gary who did not give presents on a_________basis, I had to make an adjustment. Gary did not wholly avoid gift-giving, though._________noticing how many hours I spend on the_________, he brought home a shoulder pad (垫肩) for the telephone receiver. But mostly, he_________holidays, let alone shop for earrings to_________to me showing his affection.

I tried to change him_________. I bought books for his birthdays and knitted him hats and sweaters for Christmas._________I began to tell him what I wanted, giving_________instructions, but got nowhere.

Last year when the snowstorm__________our town and he was on business, I used his present road scraper(铲土机)to__________both our drive and our neighbors, thinking how__________earrings would have been. Gary had wisely chosen not the thing I__________,but the thing that he knew I would need.

I__________began to understand the difference between a present and a gift. A present is just a thing. But a gift is broader and often cannot be__________. It is a small act of kindness, the__________to bend to another's needs, the sacrifice of time and effort.__________is a gift. Any expression of it, freely given, is a (n)__________from the heart that is immeasurably better than a present.

My insistence on presents must have seemed to Gary a lack of__________for the gifts he had be giving all along, but he never stopped giving them.

Gary will be home this Christmas, but I don't __________a present. I already have the greatest gift.

When you get a less than desirable gift, people like to say, "It's the thought that counts." But with my mother's gifts, you've really got to wonder, What______was that, exactly?

Still, my mother's presents are never given with malice (恶意)or mischief; they are always presented with wide -eyed,______ excitement. “Do you like it?" she always asks with ______. Over the years, her Christmas presents have generated amusement, confusion, and sometimes even ______.

Several years ago, my mother spent days ______ handmade clay sculptures for my brother, my sister, and me: lovingly crafted, strange interpretations of our heads. "Keep it on your ______ counter. ”

I took the head home and placed it in my bathroom as instructed. I soon discovered that few things ______ a two-year-old child more than a small, odd version of his mother's clay head ______ him while he poops.

My son used the downstairs bathroom more and more instead, and he even ______ to take a bath if the head was in the room. We both ______ its presence until one day, as I was doing dishes, I heard a series of bumps, followed by a large crash. I walked over to the stairs, and there, at the bottom, was the ______, broken into a dozen pieces, At the top of the stairs stood my son, triumphant(洋洋得意的).

Still, the clueless, endless, and enthusiastic love shown in my mother's ______ presents is the same love with which she raised me and my brothers and sisters. She has always loved us for our boring, reserved personalities ______, and we-- with all our eye rolls and sighs around the Christmas tree -- love her unconditionally as well. Maybe there is no ______ gift to give children than the knowledge that they can be weird or awkward and still feel ______ just the way they are.