November is for Thanksgiving

Here in Alabama we have four seasons, however slight the changes may seem compared to those in Charlotte where we lived for 25 years before purchasing Jubilee Suites in Fairhope, AL. Every year as the fall weather arrives, my thoughts turn to Thanksgiving. This year has been another year of much change and I have so much to be grateful for.

My husband Jim, my patient partner of 38 years, my best friend… what would I do without him? Now retired from Microsoft and before that a U.S. Navy pilot, he’s in the kitchen by 6:30 every morning making breakfast for our guests 7 days a week. And he’s really good at it! Plus he has been our main handyman here at Jubilee Suites, doing routine maintenance, fixing and replacing appliances, maintaining our phone and reservations systems, and more… countless projects that I’ve depended on him for since the beginning.

On another personal note, our decision to move here 4 years ago to be closer to our son Dylan and his wife Maegan and their brand new family has been wonderful. Our granddaughters, Beatrice, now 4, and her baby sister, Ann Alice, are so much fun to be around and to watch grow. The latest news is that Beatrice was just baptized and Ann Alice is sitting up! See their cute Halloween costumes- matching unicorns!

Renovations at Jubilee Suites continue with one beautifying project after another to this historic hotel. We know our guests appreciate the improvements we’ve done because they tell us. We’ve made even more improvements this year such as our recent streetside landscaping project. Last year we had to take down some unhealthy trees. But this month we added nine 45-gallon trees to the property, including five live oaks, the iconic Southern oak that is a symbol of strength and often lives for hundreds of years. The changes we’re doing here not only beautify the property but they stabilize the bluff and provide habitat and food for all the birds we share our property with.

As you probably know, I love bringing people together around the idea of good food, fellowship and luxury accommodations. Small business retreats brought Sunbelt Fire, JJPR and the 5×5 Agency here for year-end planning with plenty of time for both work and team building on their agendas. We’ve also hosted several weddings this fall, such a joy after the year we’ve all been through to see families finally able to get together again to celebrate new love and family partnerships.

Last week Jim extended our wifi all the way to our Bay beach just in time for Social Feasts, a grilling festival we sponsored here with 12 barbeque chefs from all over the country. Social Feasts was a 4-day whirlwind with chefs cooking all day long all over the property followed by a community dinner for friends and neighbors. Each evening we ate the fabulous food that had been grilled that day. We loved so many things about this festival, including all the benefits to so many local merchants who sold them grills, tons of meat and produce, and even rented them golf carts and other vehicles.

And with only a few hours after that event to turn the entire place around, Jim and I hosted his Naval Academy reunion here again last weekend. Jim’s 1982 Naval Academy class, 31st company, has gathered almost every year since graduation. We had too much fun to take pictures, so here is one from a previous year.

Our Jubilee Suites staff continues to shine with not only 5-star effort but 5-star results to clean and disinfect every room and common space, stock every refrigerator, refresh every vase of flowers and welcome every guest with genuine hospitality. I am so grateful for these people who become more like family every day. We recently featured Caitlyn, our Beach Manager in a new series of articles about our staff. Watch for more articles about each one of them as we celebrate how unique and wonderful each person is! I believe every employee should be treated with as much hospitality as our guests, so we feed our staff breakfast and lunch every day. No one goes hungry at Jubilee Suites!

I am also beyond grateful for our guests who continue to shower us with 5-star reviews. We absolutely love to hear what our guests enjoy about Jubilee Suites and the special moments they experience while they’re here. At this time we have 92 reviews on Google with a 5.0 rating overall. Our Airbnb rating is also 5.0 with 250 reviews. You can see all our Airbnb reviews on our Jubilee News page as they automatically feed into our website completely unedited.

This month all three of our sons– Shane, Dylan, and Zach– and their families will join us for a combined Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration here at Jubilee Suites along with my mom and one of my two brothers. While they’re here we can update our family photos with our little granddaughter, Ann Alice too. We always look forward to these times, as I’m sure you do too, when our grown sons come home to celebrate family with us. The past couple of years have been difficult for families to come together and we cherish every moment with ours. We no longer live in Charlotte in the home where our boys grew up, but we love it here in Fairhope, AL. For Jim and me, home is where the heart is. #loveneverfails