By Jason R. Marks
As the holiday season draws upon us, many look forward to the opportunity to spend time with family and friends. Whether you are with your own family, or your in-laws, inevitably, the time off from work this time of year allows us to evaluate our relationships with those you love and those you don’t – at least anymore.

December is not just the holiday season, it’s also the planning season – planning to leave your spouse, that is.  It seems that the combination of family togetherness and New Year’s resolutions sparks unhappy couples to make a move.  Or more likely, couples with children who see the end looming, sometimes hold off on separating until after the holidays are over in order to keep the holiday season a happy time for the kids.  As a result, December to plan and January and February to carry out the plan are traditionally the busiest months for divorce lawyers.
If you and your spouse have already discussed separating after the holidays, no better time than the holiday season to start having pragmatic discussions about issues such as child custody and division of property so that when you do ultimately divorce, it will hopefully be less contentious and there may be fewer issues to hash out with the lawyers.  Although taboo, if you are thinking about getting divorced, consider having that discussion with your spouse during the “season to be jolly……..fa la la la la, la la la la.”