Consumer spending - Black Friday and beyond

What is the initial report about spending on Black Friday? I can report I did not spend a dime on Friday, as I content to eat Thanksgiving leftovers, watch football, play Wii and driveway basketball at my brother's house. Hopefully the rest of you kept our economy going...
Here is a link talking about how retailers did Friday and what is to come. From the CNN report:

Sales over the Thanksgiving long weekend were surprisingly strong. The National Retail Federation estimated that consumers spent $372.57 on average, an increase from 7.2% from a year ago.

But the NRF is predicting just a 2.2% increase in holiday shopping sales this year, which would be the smallest increase since 2002. Even that forecast is considered too rosy by many other industry experts.

After all, the healthy sales on Friday may merely be yet another reflection of how weak the economy is: i.e. people rushed out to find the best bargains but may now retreat once the sales are over.

Other headlines about consumer spending, the stimulus plan and the recession

Black Friday takes a hit from the economy

Squeezing the most from the stimulus plan

President-elect Barack Obama has not stated what the stimulus plan might cost, though Congressional leaders have cited figures of $500 billion and higher. Mr. Obama has given a hint, though. He speaks of a recovery that would generate 2.5 million jobs in the first two years of his administration. That would require not just zero economic growth, but a fairly robust expansion — a swing in effect from the present 4 percent contraction to a growth rate of 2.5 to 3 percent a year.

A not so gray Black Friday

Sales the day after Thanksgiving rose to $10.6 billion, according to preliminary figures released Saturday by ShopperTrak RCT Corp., a Chicago-based research firm that tracks sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets. Last year, shoppers spent about $10.3 billion the day after Thanksgiving.