Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, December 9, 1961

A vivid red sunrise – cold, a heavy frost, temperature near 20 ° -

A.M. – to studio to get the studio ready for new paper to be put down. I took a boyish delight as always in burning the old paper; being full of tar it made a wonderful creamy smoke, with dark flames as usual.

Mart brought Peggy over at 10:30. Tom along for the ride. He proudly showed me his catechism test paper on which he got a 97, and a note from the pastor commending him highly (Later on Peggy showed me her test paper, on which she had gotten a 96, plus a note from the pastor praising her highly also).

Tom said he wished I could take him into the country, so he could see the snow (south of here 6 to 12 inches of snow has fallen, with deeper drifts, while we had none.) They both wish hard for snow –

Peggy and I went to the studio to start our work, while Bertha got dinner. Peggy is a fast, skillful worker and by noon we had it over half-done.
For dinner Bertha had one of her incomparable beef loafs, plus many other good things.

In the mail, a good letter from Cathie. After dinner Peggy + I completed our job, then afterwards we all went shopping for and some things at Ulbrichs.

After supper we watched TV until 9:00, then we played the word-game to which Art had introduced us on our visit at Thanksgiving. Rather fun.

Bed-time music. The Messiah.

Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, December 9, 1961