I just bought the Giants expansion and it rekindled my interest in Don't Starve.
When I first started playing when the base game first came out, I either didn't notice it or it wasn't there, but there is a notification at the bottom left of the screen that says "Next Update in X days."
Where can I see what is in these updates and does the icon (for example the hand holding the "drumstick") matter or have any relevance to what the update contains?
Can't say anything about the relevance of the animation above the update notice, but these timers have been in the game for a long time. You can usually find the details on upcoming changes on the official forum of the game.
For example, the recent update that went live on April 24th.
Reign of the Giants DLC hasn't officially been released out of Beta yet, so what you actually are playing now is a Beta version of it. Purchasing this DLC allows you to test it out right now, but the balancing and tuning are still coming up.
