Sign of the Times

Yesterday was my day off, if you can call it that. It's the day I have "off" of my job that I go to and the day I try to jam in as many chores as possible. So after wandering around Walmart for a while which I hate doing so I finally said to myself "Self, what are you doing here, get out!" I left and headed to the Mall.
I'm not much of a Mall person either but, it's a sign of the times - christmas is coming; there is shopping to be done. I'm a get in, get it and get out kind of girl but yesterday as I was heading back to the exit there was the Christmas train out in a huge display.
This train set(s) is up every year but honestly, I have not taken the time to check it out since the kids were little and would stuff there little noses up against the glass on their tippee-toes to see the trains putter by through the little villages and hills.
I thought, slow down, you are moving to fast. You got to make the morning last. So I took the time to check out the little trains moving around the track and all the activity of train town.
There is a parade, which I remembered, going through a town with names of local stores. One of the floats in the parade is called "3 men in a hot tub" and sure enough, it is a hot tub with three men in it. I did not remember one of them being naked but sure enough, there is a little guy in there wearing no clothes....
Around the corner there is a fire going on with thick cotton ball puffs painted grey on the roof to indicate smoke and the police are there trying to keep order and the fire truck of course. There is a few men hanging around pointing, gesturing towards the ladder or the roof or something.
But one part, I did not really remember is a fenced in area with a barn called "Jurassic Park Day Care". There are a lot of dinosaurs lazying around inside the fence. I guess this is where you drop your dinosaur off before heading to work. Sticking out of the top window of the barn is the back end of either a brontosaurus or T-rex (not sure as I could only see his butt). Very clever.
Made me think I should really take the time in the midst of this busy season to check out the small details that make Christmas extra special. In fact, next time I'm in the mall I'm going to give that whole train set up a good going over, see what other little surprises are there to be discovered.
The Christmas chaos is starting to rev up. We can get overwhelmed, overbooked and overfed. Slow down and take the time to discover the little wonders of the season, whether that be the incredible unique beauty of a single snowflake or the back end of a dinosaur sticking out a window.