I’m not sure when Fayetteville and the southern regions of NC finally got the memo, but it is finally starting to feel like winter! Hallelujah! 

I wish I could say that I waited until the official start of the month of December to put up my Christmas tree, that bad boy went up the day after Thanksgiving. 

While I did succeed with holding off on decorating the whole house, it is now, at the time of this issue’s printing, Dec. 6 and it’s time to deck the halls. 

This has been a great year for the Journal. We were able to bring back our annual Health Care Heroes event, which featured more than 200 guests honoring local health care professionals, and I began hosting our quarterly Power Breakfasts which has been an interesting new assignment for me. I hope you were able to enjoy our final Power Breakfast for the year, focusing on “Fayetteville’s Most Intriguing People of 2024” we worked with the panelists to discuss some key talking points and of course to serve up a few ‘golden nuggets’ of wisdom to the audience. 

As we prepare for our final issue of the year coming out on Dec. 20, which will focus on a wrap up of all the developments that have taken place throughout 2024, I am looking forward to future things to come in 2025. As always, the editorial staff here at GFBJ will keep our inboxes open for all business stories across our seven-county coverage area! 

In the meantime, please enjoy this issue which introduces the wider Fayetteville community to the new CEO of Longleaf Pine REALTORS® Anne Rendle (page 5), shares more about the future second location of Miller’s Brew Coffee Shop (Page 12) and our cover story featuring Elizabethtown’s first ever seafood restaurant! I will say on a personal note it was a joy getting to celebrate their grand opening with the Elizabethtown community. The food is good, (I of course had to order a lunch platter, you know, for journalistic research and photo purposes) and the staff are very sweet and ready to serve the community. 

As this is my last editor’s note this year, I wish you all a very merry Christmas, Heri za Kwanzaa, Chag Hanukkah Sameach and a happy New Year!

Happy reading!