Trapped For Christmas

Chapter 5...

"So Christmas is only 18 days away, that means even more orders. This will definitely be our busiest time of year." I said to my three workers the following Monday morning.

I had called them all in so we could go over what the holiday was gonna be like. With it being our first year open for Christmas I wanted to be prepared. If we thought Thanksgiving was busy it was going to be hectic the next month.

I may have three workers that worked at Sweet Delights but they were all so amazing. Did I need more workers, definitely. But for now we were running pretty smoothly. Even if that meant me working everyday for 12+ hours.

"I know with the holidays we all want to be with our families so I want to make sure we get all of our orders out and done before the 22nd the latest, which is 16 days away." It was really soon but I didn't want to make anyone work any closer to Christmas.

That was one of the things I learned from Aubrey's mom over the years. She closed her bakery a few days before the holiday so her workers could be with family. She taught me to treat your workers like family. The better you treat them the happier they are to work for you. Which is why I had the best bakers in Burlington at my bakery.

First we had George, who looked the furthest away someone who liked to bake. He was in his later 60's, retired and always loved to bake but never had the time before. When he answered my ad about needing workers I hired him on the spot. He was so sweet and literally made some of the best looking cakes.

Edith was my god send. Her sister worked with Aubrey's mom at her bakery and when she heard I was opening up my own she gladly offered to come help me out. She helped me get this place up and running. Taught me about managing the books, although I still wasn't the greatest at it, and she could run this place with her eyes closed if I needed.

And then finally we had Tory. She just graduated high school and was now going to the local college in town. I met her when I took Abby and Leo to the park. She was there with her little sister. While the kids played we got to talking and I found out her home life was a bit....hard and she needed a job that was flexible with school and her family. I offered her one on the spot. She was basically a natural in the bakery.

We were a small group but we worked so well together. We were our own little family at this point. I would need to hire some more people soon, hopefully in the new year, but for now I was happy with my little group.

"If you need any days off just let me know beforehand." Grabbing my iPad I clicked on the order list we already had. "We do have quite a few orders already. So George and Tory you two can get started on those while Edith and I get to work on making the other stuff. Once we have caught up with the front I'll come back and help with the orders. Sound good?"

With a series of nods I sent Tory and George the orders they'd be working on before turning to Edith to see what needed to be baked for the cases out front. One thing I splurged on a few months ago was iPads for everyone.

We were printing off every order and all the specific instructions people had, and while it wasn't the biggest deal it was costing us more in ink and paper to keep up. Add in the amount of paper laying around while trying to make the order. A few times the orders have gotten mixed up and someone was making half of a recipe and half another.

It made more sense to buy everyone iPads where I could easily send the order/recipe and they can keep it beside them as they worked. With the help from Aubrey, she made my entire website for people to see what kind of stuff we had and where they can submit a specialty order. At first it took a bit to teach George and Edith how it all worked but now it was a simple push of a button and it would appear on the screen.