Frankly, My Dear...

A regular Monday finds PJP a relatively quiet place.  Because we are closed on Sundays and Mondays, we tend to use a bit of Monday's time to do prep work for the week ahead (and also squeeze in the laundry, grocery shopping, house cleaning, and the Netflix binges that makes ordinary life possible).  But today wasn't a regular Monday by any means...it was a flurry of preparation for a week of tarts, Jelly Jar pies, and pie orders. When I think about the lessons learned from our Thanksgiving week, I can only think of Scarlett O'Hara in my mind and vow that as God as my witness, I'll never make French Silk pie for four hours IN A ROW again while a long line of restless customers snakes down the sidewalk of 3601 Buttonwood.

So this time, we will be ready for an onslaught of pie orders.  And the unique thing about the Christmas pie season is that we tend to be busier each day, as opposed to one or two concentrated days of pie pickup that leaves me with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.  Oh, and did I mention that Mac, Mitch, and Sydney are all taking their finals this week and then traveling home to their families?  Yeah.

Thankfully, Team PJP is still strong.  Because they haven't been properly discussed on the blog, allow me to introduce you to our two newest employees...Barb and Sunae.

Barb is a long-time baker who found herself with some extra time on her hands and so she stopped by to ask about joining Team PJP.  On her first day of employment, Jeanne and I had a big throw down about something and so I think if Barb was looking for a classy welcome, she probably really regretted submitting her application to PJP.  Thankfully she stuck around to witness our more normal selves and well, WE ARE BIG FANS OF BARB.

Sunae is a native of Hiroshima, Japan and has lived in the United States for 11 years.  She loves baking and in her two weeks at PJP Buttonwood, she has made 4,141,931 Jelly Jar pies and bagged 5,205,150 tarts.  She seems as yet completely unfazed by the crazy pace at PJP and jumps right in with zeal for whatever task we throw her way.  She is also unfazed by Jeanne singing "Mary, Did You Know?" 312,525 times a day while she rolls dough and that, without question, is some skill worth mentioning.

For one brief moment, I feel prepared for the week that lies ahead at PJP Buttonwood.  I'm sure that in 12 hours, I'll feel anything but prepared.  But as Scarlett always said...I'll think about that tomorrow.