Post-Christmas blahs? Union Station has the cure

Day after Christmas always finds me a bit tired, but in a good way.

All the excitement and bustle leaves one's ears full and mind overwhelmed. Clearing up the dirty dishes, mounds of wrappings and piles of unsorted gifts provides a bit of busy-work, but then what?

I came down to Union Station. We are open regular hours the rest of the week, and all next week except New Year's Day. The exhibits aren't going anywhere, the volunteers (God love them) need things to do, why not?

$5 and you can spend the whole day wandering. Find a better deal anywhere, I dare you. You can pick up that Union Station Christmas tree ornament you've always wanted at the same time.

The Christmas tree in the grand lobby is still up with a huge electric train circling it. Kids love those things. And speaking of things kids love, I saw a couple volunteers sitting in the Browning Kimball Classic Car museum, surrounded by all that glorious gleaming chrome and polished paint.

The art gallery has amazing stuff on show.

If you want to buy something for your friend, the Gift Shop at the Station has a 35 percent off sale on all Christmas stuff, and lots of other fun stuff besides. I'm not too sure about the Mysterio "predict your baby's future" t-shirts, but they still have tea towels, candy, cards and much else.

The volunteer in the Utah Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum said she'd had a lovely quiet Christmas. Her kids are splattered all over the country, so it was just her and her husband, "but my Christmas was perfect, I got my chainsaw upgraded.

"You probably want to know what that's about, don't you?"

I said I did. It seems that, for her birthday, her husband bought her a smaller chainsaw to deal with tree stumps around their property. That was fine, but there's a lot of cut down trees, and a lot more trees and hedges and such on their property and on their church's property, that were too much for the little one.

"So he bought me a professional one," she said.

Nice guy? Sure. "We buy each other practical gifts for Christmas and birthdays," she said, "but then some days, for no reason at all, he'll go into a store and buy me something like this," and showed me a blaze of gems and gold around her finger.