West Edmonton Mall, in particular, houses many of the memories we made together. Pia Araneta Updated (photo: iStock) Every Boxing Day while I was growing up, my mother and I would wake up around 7 a.m. so we could arrive at West Edmonton Mall earlier than the rest of the crowd. We’d begin in the southwest corner at Eddie Bauer, then to Old Navy—always one of the first shops to open—and then Gap, stopping at whichever other stores had the biggest signs and tallest piles of clothes yet to be mauled by shoppers. West Edmonton Mall is well-known for its size; a concrete behemoth spanning 5.3 million square feet and yet, my mother and I knew every corner and we were strategic in our approach. We’d take a break at Tim Horton’s on the second floor, underneath the clear-span, glazed dome roof, and watched people skate below us on the Ice Palace rink. When we were done, we’d sit in the car feeling the gratification of having made good purchases while sharing a box of Purdy’s dark chocolate hedgehogs.