Thanksgiving 2024 Recap
Well, here we are on the other side of our 11th Thanksgiving. And despite all my overthinking each element of our week in preparation - or maybe because of my overthinking - we fared just fine. WHEW. 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. By the time it all shook out, we baked over 3,500 pies between both stores in the three days before Thanksgiving. Even so, it was undeniably easier (and less dramatic) than any other previous Thanksgiving.
For the most part, pie pick up in both locations was smooth sailing through calm seas and we had less customer confusion about pick up than last year. Overall, 98% of our visitors were happy. (Let’s not talk about the other 2%. Woof. I’m going to run for office on the platform that every single person in America has to work one year in retail because it would result in markedly less mean people at the holidays.)
We did not run out of ingredients and endured no madcap runs to Hyvee, Aldi’s, Walmart, or Sam’s (minus one quick visit for heavy cream to tide us over until the delivery truck arrived). Do you remember that first Thanksgiving when we had to go to Hyvee and buy all their pumpkin and they said no? I do.
We did walk a fine line of running out of pie tins and box stickers, but it was more of a supply chain issue than an us-not-ordering-enough issue.
Now, all that said, making just under 4,000 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 the MVP through it all. It takes a special group of people to look at a baking schedule that asks for thousands of pies and not be daunted by the day ahead.
And after all the hours and all the baking and all the customer service and just all the things It takes to complete our goals for the week, we all still like each other. That’s important part of a successful holiday.
Most people always wonder which pie we make the most of and it is always pumpkin. I’m going to submit myself to Guiness Book of World Records as the human who has make the most pumpkin pies from scratch. I would literally not flinch at a head-to-head pumpkin pie making challenge with any person on this earth. Bring it on.
I did cry more than once last week. I had made it a solid number of years with no tears, but this year I cried on the weekend before and mainly it was because I was tired and because I had been home so little that I felt like even our dog was disappointed in me. If you know, you know.
And if you are curious, I heard no less than four Team PJP members express this week how happy they were that Thanksgiving - and all the stress we were under - was over until next year. Or Christmas. Either way.