What a great year we had had! A new baby daughter, a job promotion (晋升) for my husband, and a new home were among what we had received. My husband and I were grateful for them. We wanted no gifts for Christmas, because our cups were running over. So my husband and I decided to teach them to learn to share.

After dinner, we talked about doing something special for someone else at Christmas. Our oldest son said, “Why don’t we find a family who needs help and give them presents?”

All of us were excited about the idea. We didn’t know exactly how we find our “Christmas family”, but we did know we wanted to help. The next morning I made calls to friends who might know of someone in need. That evening at dinner I described the family I had found. The father was a repairman but lost his job two weeks before. He hadn’t landed a new job yet. There were three children in the family. The wife gave birth to a new baby, who was the same age as ours. But unluckily, the baby had been taking many tests as doctors tried to determine why she wasn’t developing properly. They had spent almost all their savings on the treatment, with little for daily necessities. They were in great trouble. Of course, they had little hope of having gifts for Christmas.

“Can we give them some of our clothes?” asked our daughter. We all agreed that her idea was good, and so the children ran to their bedrooms and began sorting out the clothes they had outgrown. But my husband and I knew that clothes were not enough.

On Christmas Eve, my family went for holiday shopping.

Then we were off to deliver Christmas gifts to our special family.

7 . Quite often my mother would _________ me to set the family table with the “good china.” Because this _________ with such frequency, I never _________ these occasions. I assumed it was just my mother’s desire.

One evening as I was setting the table, Marge, a neighbor woman, _________ unexpectedly. She _________ on the door, and mother, busy at the stove, invited her to come in. Marge entered the kitchen and, _________ at the beautifully set table, remarked, “Oh, I see you’re expecting _________. I’ll come back another time.”

“No, it’s all right,” replied my mother. “We’re not expecting company.”

“Well then,” said Marge with a(n) _________ look on her face, “why would you have the good china out?”

“Because,” my mom answered, “I’ve prepared my family’s favorite meal. If you _________ your best table for special guests when you prepare a meal, why not for your own __________?”

“Well yes, but your beautiful china will get chips,” responded Marge.

“Oh well,” said Mom __________, “a few chips in the china is a small __________ to pay for the way we always feel as we gather as a family at the dinner table. Besides, all these chips have a story to tell, now don’t they?”

Mom walked to the cupboard and __________ a plate. Holding it up she said, “See this chip? This plate was broken the day we brought our newborn son home. Trying to be __________, my six-year-old daughter dropped that plate as she carried it to the sink. I’ll never forget that day.”

We all laughed. At that moment, I knew for sure that the china held for mother a number of love __________ about our family.