Trying to get US in the black

Tradition places me in the middle of Colonie Center at about 11 am today. The females of my mom's side of the family have been "enjoying" an afternoon at the busiest malls in the Albany area for about 20 years now.

When we were younger, my grandmother would take all of us cousins to the movie theaters that sit within a mall to see a show and then have a little lunch. Very minimal exposure to the extreme shopping that was going on at the time. Now that we are older, we have said good-bye to Thanksgiving movies and hello to elbowing the crazies for the deals.

By no means do we do the 5 am door busters - at least not typically - but we have been known to go from about 10 am to 5 pm. By five we are tired and over the whole consumerism thing and head on to big family dinner number 2, which has come to mean setting up shop at my uncles for pasta and wine.

This year we didn't make it past 2 pm and later ended up at a sports bar where we overwhelmed our waiter with our volume and ordering. It was a grand time.

But back to the shopping...I would say that the six females did their job and managed to help stimulate the economy to some degree. Personally I got half of two Christmas presents and then a few things for myself. Big purchase (which will be considered a birthday/Christmas present to myself) was a Burberry perfume/lotion/body wash set - that came with a free teddy bear! Burberry clothing is something that I have no interest in, their fragrances are something else. When I was in Vegas I fell in love with a scent and have yet to find it again. I purchased Beat today and while I love it, I am not sure if it was THE SCENT, and I am still ok with it. If you're in Boston, I'm sure you will notice the new smell, I plan on wearing it pretty often, especially given what I paid (even with the deal)

I am not sure what the official numbers were like regarding how much was spent by the people, but I will attest to the fact that mall was not empty. Additionally, people were hungry for deals, we saw many people stocking up on deals and ready to argue about prices with the sales staff. (In most cases these arguments were because the customer didn't bother to read which brand was on sale an decided ALL griddles sold in Macy's were on sale...yeah not so much). Hopefully, the economy continues to move in a positive direction. All I know is that I am ready to jump into the Christmas present purchasing madness.