Well, if my family celebrated Christmas I would have ruined it for them this year. After working most of the 24th I went over to my parents' house for dinner and was unable to escape my mother's interrogation as to why I haven't been at meetings or in service for three months. This turned into an hours-long conversation with my parents in which I essentially announced my decision to leave the JWs. For a while I dodged around the question of what my specific concerns were, but they were insistent so I mentioned something about recent archaeological work in Israel proving that the kingdoms of David and Solomon as described in the Bible never existed, and that the entire region probably only supported a few thousand people and so the huge armies mentioned in the Bible could never have been assembled. I knew this went over my mom's head a little, but my dad is better educated in that area and I think he knew the game was up after that, though I made oblique references to 607 BCE, the implausibility of the Deluge, and some other stuff too. We had a somewhat tearful parting and each of them subsequently wrote me a letter expressing their reaction (disappointment, of course, but also a refreshing willingness to accomodate my position, thank God).
It wasn't as bad as I expected actually, and I'm going to talk it over with my dad some more and cover some further, more specific questions. I'm keen to get his opinion in more detail because he told me over the course of our conversation that he too would be a liberal, secular humanist like I am if he wasn't a JW. I of course have to tell him that I don't think I can ever make the kind of reconciliation between the two that he seems to have. An odd situation, for sure.
Now what's on my mind is what to say to the elders when I get the inevitable shepherding call (one of them called me the other day but I didn't bother picking up). I don't care at all what they think about anything except insofar as it affects my family - to have a DA or DF announcement read out from the platform would be an entirely destructive experience for them given the viciously homogenous hive dynamic that dominates the social structure of the JWs, so I do want to avoid that if at all possible.
Thoughts? Comments? I should maybe add that I feel like a massive weight has come off my shoulders after finally having a conversation I've been planning for years. It's almost like I actually physically breathe easier and feel better. My finances and education are still in pretty dire straits but the stress is so vastly eased that it's as though I can handle life much more easily. Feels nice.