Wow ... quite the Holidaze there. Your MLCr has always been an odd duck in regards to the norm. Low energy which also equates to little/no movement luckily you are a very down to earth kinda gal and you have not pushed him till he needs a bit of a nudge just like you did here.
This time of year is tough, I know for me it bugs seeing the MLCrs all chipper and bouncing around given all the destruction ... but as you noticed underneath all that is a massive amount of guilt and remorse I am thankful I do not have hanging over my head and with the holidays its a silent reminder for all those involved ... this time of year has a way of getting a few of those emotions to bubble up to the top not only for us but for the MLCr as well.
Reading along it does jump out how he seems to be gravitating about the moving back thing ... the roadblock he has is that it would not fix anything. I would personally remind him nothing can be fixed by ignoring it and sweeping it under the rug which he historically has been very good at ... but MLCrs also are very timid especially when its being called out/judged and I would suspect they know how much hurt they have caused but have no idea how to fix it nor if they even want to go through all that, so he has a bit of baking still to do but he does seem to be feeling the tug of the family unit which leads me to my next question.
M ... what do YOU want? Either way its going to be hard and alot of work involved. I am at a point even if the MLCr dropped all and said all the right things I am not so sure I would be open to it anymore, partly just because I would not believe it but also partly because I have been solo for so long and being married and living as a family at this point would just feel so weird ... I worry that being alone for so long I have come to accept nothing else. Food for thought and I am interested in how/where you are at with all this.
You rock, I think you have handled this so well ... just prooding you for your perspective.
