Hives.

So, I'm not normally an early morning blogger...as a rule, I am a big fan of the late-night for pretty much everything...even laundry-folding.  And now I find myself living in Jeanne Plumley's world...and that world starts around 3 am.  We agreed to meet at 3 am one day last week and so I woke up at 2:51, brushed my teeth, put on my clothes, got in my car and was at PJP Buttonwood by 3:03.  Jeanne got up at 12:30 am and had coffee, did a Bible study, shopped online, and did her makeup.  And arrived at 3:03.  And if you ever wanted to know how we differ despite being so similar, well, THERE YOU GO. We have been a little busy over the past week.  And by a little busy, I mean that I may have to research a long-term therapy program for people affected by overexposure to 4 ounce Ball canning jars.  In the last week at PJP, we have filled, baked, put lids on, boxed, and sold over 1,000 Jelly Jar pies.  And for that, we are most grateful.  I would clap for us, but my hands may be permanently gnarled into a round 4 ounce shape.  On Friday, I briefly considered calling up a pre-school to see if they could send over a pack of toddlers interested on working on their fine motor skills while opening 1,000 jars.  And but for our super hot ovens and our propensity to sometimes swear, I would have been happy to have them.

Tomorrow, another 300 jars or so go out of our doors and onto UPS trucks.  And then our focus will solely be on order pick-ups.  I find myself using whatever spare mental energy I have to focus on ways to ensure that Christmas pickup is NOT like Thanksgiving pickup.  And like someone who has been thrown from a horse and is trying to get back on for the first time, I'm a little skittish.  And thus, if you've seen our front door in the past 24 hours, you've seen this:

And the anxiety of writing that sign almost did me in.  I am the worst person EVER at saying no.  Our plan was to cut off orders on Friday morning and then people would wait in line to get to our front counter to order a pie, we would say no, and several people welled up with tears.  Tears are my kryptonite.  So I would let them order.  Some people were super grouchy about it.  And super grouchy people are the worst for my need to please everyone.  So I would let them order.  And by the end of the day, we had added 61 new people, both crying and grouchy, to our order list.  After thinking it through at 2 am (thanks, Jeanne!), we decided to make a sign for the door so that would no one would walk in and wait to order...thereby limiting my exposure to feeling terrible and saying yes.  And I get that in the long run, saying no is the better choice...overbooking us in terms of what we can produce and/or what we can make happen without people waiting 45 minutes to even get our front doors is the logical thing.  It is just that logical isn't Jeanne or I's strong suit.  We are TEAM EMOTIONAL all the way.  And all this is to say that please know if you read that sign and you are sad, just making the sign gave me hives.

And while on the subject of hives, we have made the decision to close the week between Christmas and New Year's.  So here is the plan, we will be open on the day after Christmas and the Saturday after Christmas from 9 until 1.  And then we will close until Tuesday, January 6th.  The decision to do so has almost killed us.  We've been back and forth on the whole thing and in terms of pros and cons, it basically came down to the number of people we guessed would want pie for New Year's Eve versus our sanity outlook for 2015.  I think that if we can start the new year with a sufficient amount of REM sleep, then who knows what is possible for PJP in 2015?  So that is the plan...no pies, but a lot of REM sleep, my favorite lounge pants from Old Navy, wine, and sitting.  A lot, a lot, a lot of sitting.  A lot. Of. Sitting.

Oh, and some sitting.