When my parents were alive, the hardest person to figure out a Christmas gift for was my Mom, because she was a frugal person as it was, she lived in an apartment with limited space for storage or display, and she never really said anything about "wanting" anything. When I was in my late 20s, I decided one year to try "time and place" as gifts, as opposed to things, and one year I gave her and my brothers a weekend in San Diego, and we had a great time there, and after that, the issue was resolved, and I tended to give both my parents such gifts after that. A gift of a good time is hard to beat.
Today, my wife holds the place of toughest to shop for during the holidays. There are several reasons - first of all, I do want my gift(s) each year to be spot on for her, because it should be, and also because I've given her my share of duds in the past. I have a hit-and-miss history - either they are great gifts, or they're in the "what was he thinking" category. On the other hand, we're able to get pretty much anything we want or need within reason anyways, so a lot of potential gift ideas don't work just because they're either already owned or already judged to not be that important.
I hate the years where I feel pretty uncertain about the specialness of my gift(s) to her. This year I feel pretty confident I have a winner. I hope so. I just want to avoid that sensation of a lead dirigible plunging into your house, the one I had when I got her the camping stove for her birthday.
Nothing says "love" like a Roomba.