B, a counselor for L School District, said she usually spends about $1,000 in Christmas gifts for friends and family, but is cutting back to no more than $500 this year — and all of it will go toward her 3-year-old daughter, N.

 

“I can’t afford to shop for myself. Everything has to go to my child. You have to pay bills, so some of those bills are going to get stretched out.”

 

That’s a few sentences out of a “news item” about the shopping scene on Thanksgiving Friday. Now, I am no expert on three-year-olds, but chances are, that little girl