Despite the rumors and headlines that directly link a woman's happiness to the amount of money spent on her, everyday life can be saturated with examples that prove just the opposite. Granted, it takes an ample amount of creativity and ingenuity to come up with just the right small gift to present to your wife, but it is within these little packages that are born romantic stories to entice her closet girlfriends and fables to encourage her future grandchildren.

How does one man accomplish such a task?

First, stop thinking of a gift as a little present that needs to be boxed up and neatly wrapped. A gift can be anything that brings joy. A flower placed on her pillow before she wakes, a CD you created for her placed in her car, a trip to the spa so she can have an hour all to herself, her favorite dessert after a long day at work followed by a warm bath filled with rose petals. Be creative and don't rely on the ordinary.

Second, know what she likes. Every woman is different so relying on one list of gifts is futile. The best way to make an impression is to focus on your wife and take yourself out of the picture for a moment. Sure, you might like tickets to a sports game or the newest gadget with a remote control, but would she? What does she do in her spare time? What would she like to do if she had more time? What are her hobbies, her desires, her goals, her dreams? Now think of how you can be part of that or contribute to that in some small way. My husband knew that when my writing hobby became serious, so would be the need for memory and storage as working on a single computer seemed impossible - though we owned two. So he bought me a flash drive with more space than I would need for years. Simple really, and not expensive, but it told me he wanted to be a part of this with me, and that he was taking my desire seriously.

Third, listen when she talks. Is there a play she's been dying to see? A pair of shoes she'd had her eye on? A restaurant that just opened that no one can get into? Women drop subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) clues to just what surprises would make them happiest. Learn to pick up on them, and you can never go wrong.

Fourth, make sure your gift is something she will get use from. Sure, a porcelain figurine is beautiful to look at from time to time. But while it's sitting there collecting dust, she could be reading that new book you bought with just her in mind, and thinking about you every time she picks it up. For our

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