Thank you, folks, for your advice.
It is late and I am so worn from all of this.
I am starting to wonder how to get my AH to finally slug me good without doing me permanent injury or worse so that I can have solid proof to all the world that he is abusive and he gets arrested and I can have Christmas in peace with the children.
The threat of him at this point feels worse than a physical attack.
Sorry for being so grim. I was feeling really hopeful until this afternoon and now I feel the weight of my situation sinking in.