My Dearest Hal,

Such a nice long letter I had from you Friday and still you think you may come home. That is surely the most wonderful news anyone ever had. Darling, are you reasonably certain of this or is it just a rumor? I am afraid to believe it because it seems too good to be true.

I am so glad the opals finally got there. I hope you will be able to get them set nicely because I think they are beautiful and I am very anxious to wear them. I hope you will be able to bring them to me when you come. It doesn’t really matter what you bring or if you bring anything at all so long as you do come as quickly as possible.

We went to church this morning as usual. This afternoon we had some company. It certainly is nice to have someone come and very unusual too. People do not have enough gas to do any driving that is not essential. John and Florence M. came with their children. They have two little girls, one about Sam’s age and one about two years old. Sam enjoys having someone to play with. I wish he could see more children than he does. He needs to have someone to play with every day and he doesn’t have it now. I have not mentioned it before as I knew I could do nothing about it but I shall be very happy to have you here for Sam’s sake, as well as for my own. Every little boy needs his Daddy and of course Sam needs his too. I would not like to have him too much influenced by women but in this household we are a little short of men just at present.

“Tim” and Patsy came down to see us too. Patsy plays very sweetly with Sam. She is older, of course, but he doesn’t seem to mind.

Darling, did you receive a package from Elizabeth and Sara containing a fruit cake and a wallet? They were very anxious to know if you had received the wallet. They sent you and Billy the wallets for Christmas and were anxious to know if they had arrived as they were quite expensive. I do hope they have not been lost.

Speaking of Christmas packages, how many things did you get from us? Sam and I sent you three and I can’t be sure which of them you have received. You mentioned getting one. Did the other two fail to get there?

Hal, please tell me if you know and are allowed to tell me whether you expect to have service in this country or will you have a leave and then see more overseas duty. I am so anxious to know.

Hal, I can hardly bear to think how wonderful it will be to have you home again. I am planning to do many things to get ready for your homecoming. I don’t suppose I’ll get very many of them done, but it won’t really matter so long as you get here. I suspect you will love us as we are. You did before and I don’t believe you will have changed in that respect. I shall expect you to be changed, everyone changes some every day they live, whether they are aware of it or not, and I shall not expect us not to be different in some ways, but as long as our love is unchanged that is all that really matters.

Come quickly, darling, we shall wait most impatiently I’m afraid.

All my love,

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