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We don't have the first half of this letter.  That's a shame, but there's such good information in here that it's worth including anyway.
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I didn’t get here until half past six Friday evening so we hadn’t a great deal of time to shop.  But the stores were about sold out by that time.  We bought Margaret a boat which is supposed to go when it is wound up but it isn’t much of a success.  When I was getting her ready for her bath she said she wanted sail boats in the water - meaning my pink soap box lids.  Will thought she meant her new boat and said it was not a sail boat but a gasoline launch.  She said, “It’s a water boat.”  Yesterday when we had turkey for dinner she said “Please give me some chicken.”  I said: “This is not chicken” and then she said: “Please give me some rooster.”

You never told me what my share in Laura’s silver amounted to.  What is the name of the pattern?

Tonight Will is taking Misses Ruth and Kathleen Farmer and me to see “The Garden of Allah.”  Last week Miss Ruth took me to see “Everywoman.”  I thought it was very good.

I received two hand-embroidered night gowns, one from Julia and one from June.  Miss Schover[???] made me a flesh colored crepe de chine combination.  The name seemed to strike Margaret’s fancy for when she wanted to be dressed in the morning she called “Mother, come and put my combination on.”  She usually leaves off the “Grand”.

The Norris children gave me a patent leather envelop purse.  Helen Chapman gave me a small hand bag and a handkerchief case with a handkerchief in it.

Florence gave me a handkerchief in which she had crocheted an E.  She also send a guripen [???].

Mrs. Thorn [???] gave me a silver napkin holder.  Mrs. Heterlig [???] gave me a box of candy.  You know about the pretty things Laura and Elizabeth sent.

Mother is delighted with her portfolio.  Will and I teased her because when she saw the calendar in it she said “1915 - that won’t do.”  Otherwise it is just right.

We have a very pretty tree this year.  It hasn’t shed a needle yet so won’t be ready for burning before I leave.

Today’s Army and Navy Journal tells of a daughter Antonia born to Major and Mrs. Alstetter at Grand Rapids Dec. 11th.  

I hope you have had a nice time in Philadelphia.  You would have a chance to rest from your dissipations.  I am anxious to know if you notice much difference in Mabel’s and Lil’s playing.  I think they have improved a great deal.

I am just beginning to write my thank-you letters so have a good many still to do.

With much love

Eva
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1.
Eva’s handwriting is not terribly legible in this letter.  She was away from home, so I charitably assume that she didn’t have a comfortable place to write.

2.
The letter recipient: We know this letter is to Alma because it talks about Mabel and Lil in Philadelphia, and they were friends of Alma's.

3.
The date of the letter: I think the date of the letter must be the day after Christmas because Eva mentions having turkey for dinner the day before, and it was something that three-year-old Maggie was not familiar with.  And the only possible year is 1915, because that's the only Christmas in which the Stokeys knew the Farmers but Will was not yet married to Kathleen.

4.
I didn’t get here until half past six Friday evening so we hadn’t a great deal of time to shop.
Friday would be Christmas Eve. Good heavens, didn’t Eva get her Christmas shopping done before she came?  Oh, well, maybe she wouldn't have had room in her luggage for Christmas presents.

5.
Tonight Will is taking Misses Ruth and Kathleen Farmer and me to see “The Garden of Allah.”  Last week Miss Ruth took me to see “Everywoman.”
5a.
There is no sign here of which of the Misses Farmer - Ruth or Kathleen - is favored by Will.  It looks as though Ruth is the one favored by Eva, but I figure Eva really doesn't care as long as one of these good Christian Scientist girls marries Will.
5b.
As for The Garden of Allah, Wikipedia says it is a 1916 film.  Maybe dates got sort of wobbly in the early days of film.  The 1916 film apparently had the same plot as a 1936 film by the same name starring Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer.  Plot: 

Trappist monk Boris Androvski (Charles Boyer) feels enormous pressure at having to keep his vows as a monk, so he flees his monastery. Yet he is the only one who knows the secret recipe of "Lagarnine", the monastery's famous liqueur, a recipe passed down from one generation of monks to another. Meanwhile, heiress Domini Enfilden (Marlene Dietrich) is newly freed from her own prison of caring for her just-deceased father and also seeks the exotic open spaces of the North African desert to nurture her soul.

Androvski and Domini meet, fall in love, and are married by the local priest, after which the newlyweds are whisked off into the scorching desert – a trip that the local sand diviner has forecast will bring happiness and a bad end. Domini is unaware of Androvski's past as a monk.

When a lost patrol of French legionnaires finds its way into camp, one of their number recognizes the liqueur he is served. Boris's true identity is revealed. But not until he is rejected by his wife for breaking his final vows to God to live as a monk does Boris decide to return to the monastery, parting from his wife.”

I've include the whole plot because I’d love to know what the devout Christian Science ladies thought of a story about a runaway Catholic monk whose downfall is his knowledge of a secret liqueur recipe.
5c.
And as for Everywoman, IMDB has a 1919 movie called Everywoman that is an allegory.  Maybe IMDB has the date wrong.

6.
You know about the pretty things Laura and Elizabeth sent.
I figure this is Alma's and Eva's sister Laura Stokey, and it seems to me that Laura's companion/housekeeper/whatever at the time could well have been named Elizabeth.

7.
We have a very pretty tree this year.  It hasn’t shed a needle yet so won’t be ready for burning before I leave.
A website cautions against burning old Christmas trees in your firepit, saying, among other things:
Coniferous needles contain nitrogen and substances called terpenes which are highly toxic when burned, making the smoke in your fire pit unsafe for you and others around your fire pit to breathe.

8.
I hope you have had a nice time in Philadelphia.  You would have a chance to rest from your dissipations.  I am anxious to know if you notice much difference in Mabel’s and Lil’s playing.
Mabel and Lil are Mabel Watson and LIly Love, listed on the Non-family page page for Mabel, Lil, Steenie, and Orestes.  And any rest from dissipations that Alma enjoyed was very short, because she immediately went on to an American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Columbus, Ohio - see:
1915-12-27 NEWSPAPER ITEM MENTIONING ALMA
​

9.
Today’s Army and Navy Journal tells of a daughter Antonia born to Major and Mrs. Alstetter at Grand Rapids Dec. 11th.
​The Altstaetter baby was Antonia Altstaetter Rhodes.  She died in 2004.  I may have seen a mention of the Altstaetter parents somewhere.  I'll keep an eye out for them.

10.
Charles Frederick Stokey, whom I call Papa Charles, died on January 6, 1916, a week or two after this letter was written.  Probably Mama Margaret, Will, and Eva had no idea that he was nearing the end.  Maybe Laura was with him, I don’t know.
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