It’s November, that month of prelude. At the end of this month the holidays will be upon us, to be repeated next month. And what do many of us do for the holidays? Travel to be with family.

Thus this month’s themes: travel, with a special emphasis on family. That is, we’ll talk about traveling, traveling with family, traveling to see family, traveling with the memories of family vacations rattling around in our suitcases like mints in a tin.

Hours spent in a snowbound airport, the discomforts of your parents’ homes after you’ve moved out and created your own, group decisions about what to do for dinner that always leave someone unsatisfied, games of observation and punching in the back of the station wagon to kill the boring miles—we’ve got it all, and more.