Quote: I love my father, but I was relieved. Leaving me and going back to Greece was the best thing he could have done for me. He showed me real love by doing that, because there was peace in my family after that. I didn't have to watch them fighting, I didn't have to watch my mother crying, I wasn't the centre of a visitation dispute.
I show mine by being there for them and not fighting with my ex. It takes two to fight. I'm around my first XW quite a bit attending the same events. They are just another person. You don't have to talk to them or socialize. I'm sorry, but I think that it doesn't have to resort to running away to make it work, but there are some situations that are worse than others.
I don't blame you for not doing the XMas. I don't either, but at least we alternate. You don't have that luxury. Perhaps you could say you are no longer comfortable doing the family Xmas and would prefer to do your Christmas with just your girls and not him. If he's so big on "family", he should be willing to let you have them for part of Xmas break without him being part of the package deal. Just tell him so...at least in an e-mail.
In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln
It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. Theodore Roosevelt
