End of year assessment

Four years of marriage:
The first Christmas, we were sleeping on a friend's living room floor for our honeymoon, and we were totally broke.
The second Christmas, we were visiting my brother-in-law and his wife, and we were totally broke and a month behind on rent, with Beau at three months old.
The third Christmas, I was pregnant with Hemi, and we were living in a too-small apartment, and were totally broke.
The fourth Christmas, we were living in a house that was a drafty barn, we were a month behind on the gas and electric bills (which were more than our rent), and we were totally broke.
This year, we're in a place that has enough room and enough insulation, all the bills are paid on time, and we had enough money put aside to actually buy Christmas presents for each other as well as the children. And we're not totally broke.
Life keeps getting better. Even if you are hard-headed and slow learners like we tend to be. Our budget still crashes and burns regularly, but we're getting better. There's less stress, for the most part. We've mostly figured out what the other one's trying to say. We make sure we have fun together. And we never fight, which is something so many of our friends don't understand. You can disagree, discuss, and work out differences without fighting. Often, when we do disagree, we find it's a word-definition problem. Life's getting easier, little by little. We're planning two major trips for next summer, to two different weddings. It's going to be fun, if tight, and interesting to travel all the way across the country with the boys. We're hoping the van holds up.