Sigh.

As you might expect, we are starting to feel the Thanksgiving 2k15 pressure.  A person stopped by a few days ago with some questions about ordering and then with a giant sigh, she said "well...I'm going to order, but only if you can stand here and promise me the process will be better than last year."

I guess she thought I was normally covered in cocoa, without sleep for 36 hours, and crying?  Because that was awesome...said no one ever.

We've spent weeks (maybe months) talking about our improved process for this year.  And we've made some substantial moves toward being ready...primarily renting Spare Space.  And ordering pie boxes, pie tins, and bags in quantities that actually caused our pie tin vendor to call and verify that I hadn't accidentally pressed the wrong button on my keyboard when I ordered.

We've thought about t-shirts and lunch for staff and volunteers each day, what days the food trucks will come and restock our supply, how we will divide up the pickup tables alphabetically, what the signage will look like, and ordered enough Dasani water to hydrate us all the way through the long days and nights.  We have a plan for tables in Spare Space and a plan for those who want to be on the Pie Standby list (for any extras we might have at 5:30 on Wednesday night).  Behind-The-Scenes Tech Guru Jason has made reports and sliced data in ways I didn't even know possible (but I can now tell you precisely how many mincemeat pies we have due for pickup between 12:30 and 2 on Tuesday, November 24th) (two, if you are curious).

I actually had a dream on Tuesday night that Gunnar had broken his elbow and was texting me pictures of his completely immobilized arm from the emergency room and his doctor's note that he couldn't bake pies until December 1st.  It was so realistic that only waking up and looking at my phone to prove that Gunnar wasn't in the ER at 3 am (thankfully) could calm me down.  (I've since made each PJP employee promise me that during the next 10 days, they won't skateboard, roller skate, rollerblade, ice skate, bungee jump, parachute, fall out of a deer stand, jump on a trampoline, play paintball, participate in a mosh pit, ride a scooter, mountain climb, base jump, go spelunking, or ride a bull.)

So clearly, the whole Thanksgiving thing has been on my mind.  Just a little bit.  Ahem.

Oh, and lady who sighed and then asked if we were making any changes to improve on last year and then reluctantly ordered?  You'll totally be glad you did.