Thoughts of the holidays transport us to images from songs, movies, poems, short stories, and novels with smiling family members amid tables replete with delicious food and drink and children of all ages playing gleefully. It's a time for family and friends to connect and celebrate. Merriment and joyfulness abound.

American novelist Pat Conroy wrote, "Each divorce is the death of a small civilization." Death means grieving. The losses arising from divorce are painful. Images of grieving parents, children, and family members crying assault us. Grieving is the constant companion of those affected by divorce—family, extended family, friends, and community members. It's inevitable.

Researchers Wallerstein and Blakeslee said, "Divorce is deceptive. Legally, it is a single event, but psychologically, it is a chain—sometimes a never-ending chain—of events, relocations, and radically shifting relationships strung through time, a process that forever changes the lives of the people involved."

Some divorcing couples and their families find ways to incorporate the reality of divorce into successful holiday activities. Client names and details are changed to protect confidentiality.

Warren, 54, and Talia, 52, ended their 30-year........

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