In my state there was a long form that H had to fill out (~10 pages). First couple pages were demographics (addresses, previous Ms, children, etc). I don't know whether H filled it out or his L filled out the fill in the blank stuff with standard crap. My H threatened to have me served a few times over 2 months before he actually did it. He was so unfocused at that time that I thought he might not have the attention span to complete the paperwork. My time frame was the same as yours --- right after the holidays. My H/XH went to his Ls office before he went to visit FL BMF for New Years (so around December 27th or so) and the first attempt to serve me was made on January 4th. Didn't actually get served until January 6th. Around here it costs something like $300 to get served (filing the papers with the court) + the cost for the courier service (don't remember how much). Your H will still get charged for the courier service even if they have unsuccessful delivery attempts. You can hide inside your house if you want and not answer the door or just plan to be gone every day if you want. Just be aware that if your H knows where you are, he will have you served at that location.
To track the status of your case, your county probably has a public records website that you can log into. In my county that website is a little hard to find so I had to call and speak with someone so that they could help me find it. It didn't really show anything though until the judge set up the date for our hearing. There is probably a lot of information on that website though that may be useful to you.
I'm so sorry to hear about the inheritance . "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil."
. "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil."