Robert Indiana kept a series of illustrated journals during the late 1950s and 1960s, in which he discusses the development of his work as well as his daily life on Coenties Slip.

In his journal entry for December 19, 1962, Indiana records picking up his nineteenth-century legal seal, which had been fit with a new die, costing $44, a "certainly extravagant enough Xmas gift to myself." He notes that he waited for the seal to be ready before starting his holiday cards, and that "having [the] Stable cards made [the] yearly chore a dream." The card he refers to is the 1962 Stable Gallery Christmas card, which he designed (he also created a painting of the design).

The rest of the entry describes the party that J. (his partner, fashion designer John Kloss) threw that evening. He records giving Kloss "a bit of a hand" with the preparations, and that the first arrivals were painter Jane Wilson and her husband art critic John Gruen, who arrived on time, "fearing that there was no party." Indiana writes that "it was about an hour later before it got into full swing and then it really was a party." 

Indiana records that journalist and collector Noel Frackman came with her husband Dick, and brought friends, whom Indiana took upstairs to see his studio. He had hoped to keep visits to his studio limited to small groups at a time, but then his gallerist Eleanor Ward "led a whole party upstairs, and [the] party was split, much [to] J's' consternation." Among the other guests Indiana notes attending the party were curators Campbell Wylly and Henry Geldzahler, gallerists Martha Jackson and Hal Fondrin, and artists Joan Mitchell, Fred Mitchell, Ellsworth Kelly, James Rosenquist, Ruth Kligman, Tom Wesselmann, Marisol, Andy Warhol, and Omar Rayo. He notes that the latter "seemed much moved by my work."