How to be a present buying ninja

The art of present buying is not for everyone.  Many men fall at the first hurdle usually due not paying all that much attention to the details. My mum had fully mastered present buying ninja style by the time we came along. I remember vividly growing up how you would have to be careful, in the months before your birthday or Christmas, when expressing in any item that could be considered a gift because I cannot count the amount of times I unwrapped books, cosmetics or clothes I had pointed out casually while window shopping. I am assuming she went back at a later date and bought those items because when I was younger we were demons for rooting through her shopping bags to see what goodies she was bringing home. Often it could be the weekly food shop and sometimes it was whatever she had gotten on a day out but mostly (retrospect tells me) it was none of our business.

 As an adult I have worked on my present buying skills and I would consider myself pretty good at it. Although sometimes I will ask for hints or suggestions, mostly I try to emulate my mother and pay attention to the sort of things the person is showing interest in so I can later wow them with my present buying skills. I find buying for a boyfriend no longer has me breaking out in a cold sweat ( although I do tend to worry if I'm at the stage where we have only been dating a while and I am not sure what they like) and I already have too long a list for potential presents for Stephen this Christmas. So far I know two things, I will get carried away and I will spend too much, it's something I can't help. I will also be delighted with my purchases and have to bite my tongue so as not to brag about my great present buying expertise and thus spoil the surprise. 

 I find I get great joy in buying presents for others and I used to love making a day out of Christmas shopping and bustling through shops clutching a list, going totally over budget and hopefully getting everyone what they really wanted. Then my family introduced Kris Kindle which is where everyone in the family buys a present for someone else but we don't all buy each other presents. I got my sister in this Christmas lottery and it works because she has good taste but still each year we exchange lists of potential presents we would like. Mine are always vague with only a general idea to guide her where as hers get more specific every year. I still want  the feeling of being  surprised Christmas morning and my family will regularly chide me for being a child about the whole thing.  I do find that working in retail is slowly sucking that Childlike Christmas joy out of me. Overall the Kriskindle idea works in that we buy better presents and spend less money doing so except for my Mum who buys us all presents even though we tell her not to ( and I try to pretend I wouldn't miss it if she stopped) and then wonders why it hasn't gotten any cheaper since we started doing Kriskindle.

 I have already started to compile my lists of what I would like both from Stephen and my sister and I find I struggle to think of things that allow for a certain element of surprise without making it difficult for them to choose. For the most part I am easy to buy for, I love getting presents and when its not  something I have to eat, I am not that fussy but I will admit I am sure to drop all of the hints since that one time a boyfriend bought me a set of Celine Dion Perfumes (he is no longer my boyfriend, these two facts are not connected) because I think its safe to assume the man in my life needs a little help, after all there's only room for one present buying ninja in this relationship.

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