Good morning, Dan--The 'not wanting to ruin Christmas' effect seems to be a factor with post-Christmas deaths, too. In dating, I've explicitly asked that fellas not wait til after a holiday or birthday to break up if they're already wanting to break up. I don't want them to 'push through' a moment longer. I don't want them to break up on February 16 only to realize they didn't do it sooner to spare my feelings for Valentine's. But with kids--yeah, that's a different ball game. Quite understandable. Nice to hear the January rush on divorces may be more about being considerate to kids rather than just waiting for the tax year to be over:)

I adore Freakonomics! One # from Freakonomics that sticks out in my head is that the number of books in a family's home corresponds with how successful kids turn out. A possible mechanism was that the parents are more apt to read about child rearing to get a more wide range of ideas about how to handle problems that crop up rather than just rely on what makes sense. Makes me wonder if the same could be said for marriage and divorce:)

So you're an umbrella slash-and-jab kind. That's a good approach, too. Me, I'm wanting quick access to my hands and arms--lethal weapons unto themselves;) Just kidding. But I'll be dry in my raincoat while fighting them off and grappling. Plus I don't trust that I'll be able to hang on to the 'brella. I'd likely end up having my own umbrella used to impale me:) But there's something to be said for the approach of tossing the umbrella at an attacker's face, confusing them just long enough to get a head start on running away. The best self-defense is being fit enough to out-run attackers:)

Dan...I'm just doing this silly talk to ease the pain of talking about the decision to divorce. I can only guess how hard it must have been making that decision and worrying about how it affected your kids. You had to try to figure out the best way forward, even if that meant faking it through another month of two of a miserable marriage just to spare the kids that messiness over the holidays. I think that's what good men--good people--do, and I respect that..