The other day I told my husband that I wanted only one thing for Christmas: a quitclaim deed into joint tenancy from him to me and him. It's the home I've lived in for the past 15 years and after his daughter's snarling at me that it wasn't my house a few weeks ago, I wanted legal protection, not just fall back on the fact that we're married and blah blah blah.

We talked honestly about the deed and why I wanted it, saying obviously I needed protection from his kids and this would take care of it.
So it's at the Registry of Deeds as we speak.

I feel much better, partly because of his attitude about it, i.e. okay, why not, let's get it done. And partly because I will get a huge amount of satisfaction knowing that SD will read the recording of the deed in the local newspaper and perhaps get the message that her father and I are a team and her influence is zero.

Ahhhhh, the power of the recorded legal instrument.