Happy New Year!

So, Christmas came and went. We got up - Richard and I feeling almost human after our tummy bugs (probably noro virus), and opened family gifts. Tim admitted to feeling rather queasy, but ate some ginger and walked to the Community Church where he was not just playing but leading the singing for the short Christmas Day service.

He made it, professional as ever. But not for much longer. Happily we were offered a lift home, and he then retreated to his bed.

Since we probably caught the bug from our friends, and had so much food prepared they came over anyway, although we very much missed Tim as we ate our Christmast lunch:

Richard and I didn't eat all that much as we were still being careful. We ate leftovers for a couple of days, then froze quite a bit of turkey for making future curries, pies and so on. 

I didn't go for my usual walk with Sheila on Christmas Day, and a couple of days later I was so tired I didn't feel that it was a good idea... though I was over the tummy bug by then, I had started a very nasty cold, with a hacking cough. However, by Saturday I felt almost human again, and was pleased to get out - even if I was a bit slower than usual - and to enjoy yet another rather stunning sunrise: 

I wasn't sure if the picture worked so switched the camera to manual setting, and tried again: 

Dark and brooding, but I have a feeling that when using 'manual' I should actually set something manually rather than just clicking... 

One of the unexpected and very nice gifts we were given was a new board game, by Tim. It's called Agricola, and has great reviews in many places. We've heard of several people who have played it, all of whom like it very much.

The only problem was figuring out how it worked, as the instructions are very long and somewhat convoluted. Perhaps they're simpler in the original German. One of our Christmas Day visitors had played before, and was able to give some guidelines, but it wasn't until a couple of days later that the three of us sat down to play it - in the shorter 'family' version - and see how it worked:

We decided that we liked it very much, and played it again yesterday. We look forward to many more enjoyable rounds in the New Year. 

We're still coughing and feeling tired, but are about to leave for a meal and board game evening with our friends, so I'll take this opportunity to wish a very Happy New Year to anyone who stops by.  Wishing every blessing for 2013.