One Week Later...
So, I didn’t mean to fall off the grid for a solid seven days, but uh…THANKSGIVING. And for all of you that have emailed me, Facebooked me, and texted me to see if we survived and how it all went…here you go:
We did, in fact, survive. I almost venture to say we thrived, as we experienced our busiest Thanksgiving in PJP history. In fact, for you who like numbers, we increased sales last Wednesday by just under 60% comparative to the pre-Thanksgiving Wednesday in 2018.
We also did not run out of ingredients and endured no madcap runs to Hyvee, Aldi’s, Walmart, or Sam’s. Do you remember that year we had to go to Hyvee and buy all their pumpkin and they said no? I do. And not repeating that level of pumpkin desperation is a crowning achievement in my professional life.
We also did not run out of pie tins, pie boxes, or bags. WHO ARE WE? WHAT IS GOING ON?
Now, all that said, making around 2,000 pies is no easy feat…even if you have the ingredients and the packaging materials. So let’s not for a hot second imply that I didn’t question all of my life choices at least five separate times last week.
Team PJP, as you might guess, was a true delight through it all. It takes a special group of people to look at a baking schedule that asks for hundreds of pies and not be daunted by the day ahead. Or to still be there at 9 pm - 15 hours later - , making YET ANOTHER round of Chocolate Bourbon Pecan.
And when I say it takes a village, it really does. Not only for Jeanne and I and Team PJP, but there were so many others who participated in meaningful ways, including the following: our volunteers, Bob and Diann, who helped customers at the door; Creekside Pet Center stopped by with cookies for Team PJP and cookies for my dog; our food truck drivers routed us early, Tina from Starbucks stopped by with a venti iced coffee at 3 pm on Wednesday because she knows me well, and Behind-the-Scenes Jason, who took off several days from his work to check people out all day and serve as my calming presence. Whew.
Oh, and you might have seen on social media that the police even stopped by to see if we needed any help as we had over 400 orders pick up between 10 am and 12:30 pm alone.
And while all that went down, Team PJP just kept baking.
And there was exceptionally little crying. I saved most of the crying for the drive home on Wednesday night when it was all over. You know when you bust open a can of biscuits on your kitchen counter and the can just has an enormous release of pressure? That’s how it feels when we turn off the lights and lock the door on the night before Thanksgiving. And that’s emotional.
And if you are curious, I heard no less than four Team PJP members express today how happy they were that Thanksgiving - and all the stress we were under - was over until next year. Tru dat. (Also, we have 3,000 tarts due next weekend but I felt it was a bad time to remind time. Gulp.)
