Shelley left Daddy and Baby to their own devices all day on Saturday, so after a morning of weeding and yard work, we visited the local hobby train store and then the mall.

Kelley found the train set-ups in the store fascinating. One of the guys who works there set up a locomotive for her that played sounds and flashed lights. That made a little girl very happy!

We watched that thing for about 45 minutes - around and around and into the tunnel and out of the tunnel - "hi train!," "bye train!," "choo-choo!," "another one!," and so on and so forth.

We didn't go just to watch trains though. Rather, I have this old American Flyer engine (#300) that stopped working about 35 years ago. It has sentimental value, so I wanted to get it repaired and give it to Kelley this Christmas even though they have a new (used) one in stock for about the same cost. I looked into the repair options last year, but too close to the holidays to have it fixed in time. The store's slow at repairing things – they need a month to do it now, off-season.

Happily, the friendly train nerds tell me that the American Flyer brand has track being produced for it again, so my small holding could be expanded to make a complete circuit of the front room instead of just a little circle around the Christmas tree. That will be more fun.

I could not believe the prices of train cars in the same scale, however: $55 and up! Kelley may have to do with the four or five that I have at home for her first gifting, especially since we also need a new transformer to make the whole thing run.