Merry Christmas to all! Gwen and I just got back from Seaside. We were celebrating our first year of marriage. It's been a crazy year in a lot of ways, lots of changes and decisions. On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd say our marriage is awesome...
    The biggest reason is the one that we heard the most, communication. I've learned to listen a lot better than ever. I've learned that if I don't know what her expectations are in any given situation, then we're already in trouble. And vis versa too, If I just expect her to guess what I want, or what I'm feeling, she probably doesn't know.  Almost every time we talk about the situation and convey our thoughts, we do well.
    The second reason we're doing well is something I can't take any credit for. Gwen doesn't treat any problem like a little problem. I admit, this can be frustrating at times. But in the long run it saves A LOT of trouble. So many times I'm content to let a little thing slide and not worry about it. I won't bring it up till I'm really frustrated and it's become a big problem. I think that a lot of relationships turn sour, not because of one or two big problems, but because of a lot of little ones. So we were proactive early on, and it has helped a lot as time has gone by.