Black Friday

I saw this in Real Simple and thought it was interesting::

• Shoppers have spent big on this weekend for decades. Indeed, in 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving up a week to extend the shopping season and help business.

• This day was first called Black Friday in the 1960s. The term derives from the old accounting practice of using red ink for debts and black ink for profits.

• Last year more than 147 million people hit the sales that weekend (and 14 percent of them were at it before 4 A.M.), with each spending an average of $347.

My mom, sisters and I (and sometimes even my brother!) have gone shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving for as long as I remember. We were never the shoppers who wait in line for hours or spend gobs of money, but it has been a tradition to wake up early, bundle up (because it's freeeezing at 5am!), grab something warm to drink and head out to the mall. We love the walking and looking around. The funny thing is that we normally don't even buy a lot, but it's just the fun of the tradition! There are some amazingly awesome sales though. I think my best sale buy was a knife set that I got at WalMart the day after Thanksgiving right before I moved out of my parents' house. My roommate still has them! So...needless to say, I am looking forward to that morning!