Just to make it clear, this is not our house, it's the house next door!
Reuben wasn't too sure whether he liked the Santa Bear or not.

Christmas time is a bit hectic in church.

We added to the pressure by having a Baptismal service in December. Ten people baptised, and the church packed.

On the following Saturday we had our Senior's Christmas Dinner.

Sixty or so of our Seniors and their friends were taken to do their Christmas shopping in Ballymena and then back to church for a Christmas Dinner and a short Carol Service.

On Wednesday 17th we went carol singing.

Started in Tesco's and then went to Northland Court and sang to the residents there and then off round the streets before coming back to the church about 9.30 for May's soup and hot chocolate and mince pies.

Friday night was the Annual Gingerbread Housebuilding Competition. Reuben made (and ate!) the popcorn





















This year the competition was particularly fierce.

May and Campbell had brought a Gingerbread House Kit home from Chattanooga, and Alison had baked her own kit from plans she found in a magazine.








As usual Pat was the honest judge! (Honest in the sense that she made it clear from the start that she was open to bribery!)











In the end Rick and Katie won with a modified kit. from Ikea.

We took a week's holiday at the end of November.
A friend of us has a house in Cranfield, which he wasn't using and very generously loaned it to us for the week.
It's in a beautiful location just at the beach with the Mourne Mountains behind us.
Weather was beautiful, clear blue skies all week but frosty.

It was great to sit reading in the conservatory and watch the light changing around the Haulbowline Lighthouse.

The lighthouse was built in 1818. The original light floated on a bed of mercury and was turned by a heavy lead weight on a chain which slowly dropped the length of the lighthouse. One of the Lighthouse Keeper's jobs was to winch the lead weight up again every 40 minutes!
We spent a lot of time walking and geocaching in the Mournes.

Rostrevor village is a couple of miles down the road. Pleasant village and the birthplace of Major General Robert Ross, after whom the village is named, and who burned the Whitehouse in Washington, during the American War of Independence. Visited his Monument on the outskirts of the village.

(The following is from Wikipeda.) "Rostrevor was the birthplace of Major General Robert Ross-of-Bladensburg, a British commander during the American War of Independence. After defeating an American force at Bladensburgh in 1814, he entered Washington on August 24 and burned many buildings including the White House. Not long after, he was killed at the Battle of Baltimore."

Walked into Greencastle, a couple of miles along the beach and saw another of John de Courcy's castles. (He also built them at Carrickfergus, Newcastle, Dundrum and so forth.) The following is from Wikipedia again. "It is a royal castle built in the 13th century. It was attacked and taken by Edward Bruce in 1316, attacked at least twice by the Irish in the later 14th century but still maintained as an English garrison in the 1590s."

Also searched out a number of local dolmen. This is one of them in a field not far from the house.