I used my first day of Christmas vacation from the library to start wrapping presents and to shop for provisions assigned to me for the big fancy dinner at the home of Mabel Watson Payne and her parents. Hearing from various participants about the cooking and preparation going on in advance, I was reminded of these Kodachrome photos taken in 1940 of a feast in the small New Mexico community of Pie Town.
The photographer, Russell Lee, was on assignment from the Farm Security Administration to document rural life in the aftermath of the Depression. About 600 of the pictures he took in Pie Town are still preserved at the Library of Congress.