The cumulative effect on me of all these holiday horror stories is to exclaim: Home Sweet Home.

Or, at least: Car Sweet Car.

I have shunned Christmas and Thanksgiving airplane travel for years. It's been bad enough when a storm hasn't shut down major hubs -- the reverb of which affects the entire country.

DC had just a dusting from that storm, yet many residents' flights back here were cancelled. Neighbors rented a car to drive back from St. Louis rather than wait days for another flight with available seats.

No thanks.