2 . Yesterday was my birthday, but I didn’t _______ a plan to do anything with anyone. Feeling greatly _______, I decided to go out to buy a cup of coffee for a birthday celebration by myself. By the time I arrived at my favourite coffee shop, I _______ a couple of ladies into the shop and waited to _______. One of the ladies asked me, “Do we get our own table or do the waiters find one for the _______?” I answered, “I think you get your own table and I’m waiting for that small one because I’m here to _______ my birthday alone.” The coffee shop was fairly _______ and they suggested we _______ a table together. I _______ that wonderful idea.

To my ________, when it was my turn to order and pay the bill, I was told it had been ordered and paid for. On sitting at the table, the ladies told me they were glad to give the surprise as a ________ to me on my birthday.

We spent one hour ________ happily together and we shared many topics of common interest. ________, we had to say goodbye and continued on our separate journey. It was more than I could have expected for the day. Thank you, ________ — my lovely angels for the day. They ________ me that sharing is a joy. We should thank those who help and care about us.

3 . One year my children came home from school asking where we were going on summer vacation. It seemed that all the other kids were________ where they were spending the summer. I couldn’t ______to take them anywhere but I didn’t want to tell them that so I just said, “It’s a surprise!” They were delighted. That bought me a little more time.

I called several amusement parks to see if there was a half-price event during the summer but no such ______ . I tried everything, with no success, so I called some of the other moms to find that most were in the same situation that I was. We decided to ______something fun for our kids to do. We had a meeting, all five of us, and created what is now called a “playcation”.

One mother was a ______ , so on Mondays the kids would all go to her house. They would play games using plants and vegetables. They also planted vegetables and watch them grow over the summer.

Another mother had Bible______on Tuesdays. She asked some questions about Bible. The kid who answered correctly got a penny, which they all turned in at the end to buy their goodie bags.

At our house on Wednesdays, I made an outdoor_______training with my spare tires. The kids also walked a balance beam and raced through large cardboard boxes taped together.

On______they had arts and crafts across the street. Fridays were hosted by a wonderful single dad with a metal detector who took everyone out treasure______ .

The summer was a big success. Okay, it wasn’t Disney World, ______the kids didn’t miss anything. My son actually asked me, “Can we do this again next year?”

4 . Thanksgiving Day was near. The first grade teacher gave her class fun homework—to draw a picture of something for which they were_______.

Most of the class might be_______economically disadvantaged; but still many would celebrate the holiday with turkey and other traditional goodies of the season. The teacher thought these would be the subjects of most of her students’_______. And they were.

But Douglas made a_______kind of picture. Douglas was a different kind of boy. He was the teacher’s true child of misery (不幸), weak and unhappy. As other children played in the playground, _______, Douglas was likely to stand close by her side. One could only guess at the pain Douglas felt behind those_______eyes.

Yes, his_______was different. When_______to draw a picture of something for which he was thankful, he drew a hand. Nothing else. Just an ordinary hand.

His strange image captured the_______of his classmates. Whose hand could it be? One child guessed it was the hand of a________because farmers raise turkeys. Another suggested a police officer’s because the police protect and________people. Still others guessed it was the hand of God for God feeds us. And so the________went on—until the teacher almost forgot the young artist himself.

When the children had gone on to other pictures, she walked up to Douglas’ desk, bent down, and asked him whose hand it was.

The little boy looked away and muttered (低声说出),“ It’s yours.”

She________the times she had taken his hand and________with him here and there, although she had the other students. How often had she said, “Take my hand, Douglas. We’ll go outside.” Or “Let me show you how to________your pencil.” Or “ Let’s do this together.” Douglas was most thankful for his teacher’s hand.

6 . When my father was celebrating a milestone birthday, I pulled together a surprise gift treat he would never forget.

As he was _________ 60, I had a fun idea: What if I could get the _________ people had of him, put each one into an envelope—60 in total—and have him open them, one by one, on his birthday? So I wrote an e-mail to family and friends, _________my idea.

I sent the e-mail and waited. And then the _________ started coming in and I was very, very_________. There were so many memories, and they were all so lovely. They came from the 50s, 60s, 70s, from every decade (十年) between now and the day my dad was _________. They came from my mother, my siblings, my grandma, my dad’s friends from high school, his sister, my dad’s first boss, a colleague at his first _________, from people who hadn’t seen my dad in 40 years, from people I myself hadn’t even informed. They _________ them and handwrote them. They mailed them and e-mailed them.

The night before Dad's birthday, my sister and I _________ up late, putting everything together with some __________ . The next morning, after breakfast and __________ and cake, we gave the pile of envelopes to him. "Just one more thing for you,” we said.

It took him a long time to open them and __________. Each one was a brief ticket to another time, a leap backward over years and decades. There was a lot of laughter and a few__________, too.

I was kind of __________ when the project was over because it was great fun to collect these memories. It gave me a different __________ of dad.