Today you are ten years old. A while ago, I wrote another letter to you. I told you about how I had found life _______ after you were born and the following year, but how I loved you with all of my heart. None of that has _______.

You have overcome so many challenges and _______ so much and my heart swells with pride on every _______. I recently asked people who love you to think of a word they _______ with you and I was moved with their choices. Confident, kind, adorable--to name but a few. Please _______ these words in years to come and if you ever have _______ about who you are, I want you to refer back to this.

You see, there is another word people often use to _______ you, one that you’re not yet aware of and that is autistic (患自闭症的). If your _______ of the world around you has grown in the future, I will ________ to you what that actually means.

The way your brain works means you see the world around you very _________ You can’t often say what you feel, which makes me sad, as I want to help and try to put you ________ but without knowing what it is that is bothering you.

What I do want you to know, ________, is that despite the challenges you face, your autism can be a ________ to you and every word used to describe you is entirely accurate. Finally, I want to say, the most ________ word to describe you was this---“perfect”--you are and always will be.

Love,

Mummy

Mother has just taken her temperature—over 38℃. She’s got the bug that’s going around. It’s right after lunch. The older children are at school, and the_________is sleeping. There’s no     _________why Mother cannot go to bed. But first she has a few things to do. Leave a _________for the cleaners.Put in the next load of washing._________the garbage.

At last she_________into bed. Ah-h-h-h! Her aching_________ stretch out comfortably under the cover. Her burning eyes_________. Then, suddenly, the front door bangs open as the children_________ home from school. Without finding their _________mum as usual, they cried out “Mum!” Mother tries to answer but their cries__________out her weak calls. Soon they find her—in bed. “I’m sick,” she says. “I can’t do anything. I’ll just have to __________it all to you.” She sighs. The children then rush out like __________ going into battle. Then father comes back and joins them.

__________in her room, it is clear to mother that the family is eating dinner__________she lies there sick and alone. She feels left out and__________. Then there is a crash and noise until, finally, the children appear, smiling.

“Can we stay with you? And the kitchen is a__________. And nobody knows where the broom is.” “Mum, I sure wish you’d get better.It’s just no__________when you’re sick.” says the boy, “I hope you feel better tomorrow. We miss you.”

__________, mother notices that her aches and pains are gone. So you see how it is with mothers. Other people have the 24-hour bug for 24 hours. But not a mother. If she feels __________enough,she can get over it in 12 hours or __________!

There isn’t a book that I always _________ to at this most wonderful time of year, as jingle-bell _________ has it. Having said that, my husband is much more Christmassy than me and there are two texts he has made a(an) _________ part of the family festival, like the _________ tributes to the dawn of next year led by the calendar.

This Christmas, then, the following unchanging ritual (仪式) will be _________. He shooed us to the sitting room, withdrawing a shiny black long-playing _________ from its ancient, crumbling sleeve and place it on the turntable.

When he did this the first time our children were _________, as up to that point in their young and tech-centric lives they’d never seen such a thing before. They were quite happy to watch it go round and round _________ the point of the ritual was the spinning disk, whatever sound was coming out of the two ancient speakers.

“Richard Burton is the best,” my husband then cut in _________. As the dark Welsh __________ of Burton began to narrate (解说) Dylan Thomas’s radio drama Under Milk Wood, the children would settle in silence, __________ their listening positions in the sitting room by the fire, only slightly anxious about how to convey without complaining out loud their deep concerns about being detained too long from toys, televisions and presents.

My husband will sonorously (洪亮地) __________ his favourite bits so we all benefit from hearing the words in stereo (立体声). Our Master’s Voice and Burton’s declaiming Under Milk Wood together.

“It is a spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black…”

Filled with seasonal feeling and wonder as any bible reading or carol, the best bit for me is watching my children’s faces as the __________ words make pictures in their heads __________ Dylan Thomas’s unimprovable formulations: they see the dogs in the wet-nosed yards and they hear the hushed town breathing.

This is as much a part of Christmas as a Festival of Ten Lessons and Carols from Kings to all my family, and this is __________ :Even though cold and silence and blackness run through the piece like a layer of __________ , it beats with heat and warmth. It is a celebration of humanity. Compare the words of “Silent Night” to this:

“Time passes. Listen. Time passes. Only you can hear the houses sleeping in the streets in the slow deep salt and silent black, bandaged night. ”

Of course, on the face of it, Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales is the more __________ text, and my husband will often play or read that too. The __________ lines of A Child’s Christmas, “I said some words to the close and holy darkness, and then I __________ ,” are perfectly final. Dylan Thomas rounds off his little story of his Welsh childhood as Shakespeare rounds off our little lives — with a sleep.

All is dark, all is bright in both, but the one I ponder __________ my heart is Under Milk Wood.