BUFFALO, N.Y. — It's barely 6 a.m. on Cyber Monday and the mountain of Black Friday purchases has already started to take up an increasing amount of space at the post office on Hertel Avenue. 

The U.S. Postal Service says Western New York alone will send and receive some 9.5 million packages between Thanksgiving and January 1.

"It's going to be busy and we are ready,” said Karen Mazurkiewicz, a USPS spokesperson.  “We have extra people, everyone is putting in extra hours and we are going to make sure it gets done by the holiday."

What once was a busy two-week period is now two months.

"Parcels, that's all we see is parcels,” Maureen Galletti said. “We see them morning, noon and night."

Galletti is a distribution and window clerk. So before the office opens she is making sure tidings of joy are getting into the hands of the right postal carrier.

"Amazon drops off at our back door twice a day,” she added.

So are there any challenges?

"I don't want to see another parcel once I'm home, let's put it that way," Galletti laughed.