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Family travel isn't always kid stuff

From Valarie D'Elia, TODAY contributor and travel expert It’s that time of year again, when parents are rounding up their kids to make that annual journey they either love or dread. Time to visit grandmothers, mothers, fathers, sisters-in-law, you name it. Any variety of relative counts. I usually prefer to sit this one out and observe with awe this yeoman’s task of coordinating flights and

From Valarie D'Elia, TODAY contributor and travel expert It’s that time of year again, when parents are rounding up their kids to make that annual journey they either love or dread. Time to visit grandmothers, mothers, fathers, sisters-in-law, you name it. Any variety of relative counts. I usually prefer to sit this one out and observe with awe this yeoman’s task of coordinating flights and outfits, filling up gas tanks and baby bottles, booking hotels and packing favorite books. As a reporter who knows all too well the trials and travails of travel, I try to avoid traveling around the holidays and just like to stay put if I can. I don’t have kids of the human kind, but consider Mojito, my 4-year-old Havanese to be “my little boy” and about all I can juggle with my globe-trotting schedule. I’ve done my share of family travel myself, as a little girl with my travel agent parents, cruising with my nieces when they were teens, planning their honeymoons and now, recruiting my cousin’s grandchildren for a kid’s perspective on my travel research. As I’m learning these days, family travel isn’t always kid stuff. Friday, I will be heading to South Florida for the launch of a humongous new cruise ship and will tack on some extra time with my brother to scout out nursing homes for my mother, who is in the advancing stages of Alzheimer’s and just got bumped out of assisted living. Even though we pack a whole lot of love, some sorrow and even a dose of guilt on this trip, we’ve scored a holiday coup -- frequent flier seats back home on Thanksgiving Day! Share your family travel stories and tips. Related stories:Video: Stay sane while traveling with the kids

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