here's nbc's ron mott. >> reporter: more and more families are passing on a holiday stay-cation this year, instead splurging on an old fashioned vacation, despite higher travel costs such as gas and hotels. >> organizing to go. >> reporter: this weekend, kamal, lisa and 6-year-old sedera are off on their first cruise to the caribbean, a trip that's been in the budget a long time. >> we started paying for it in march. so it's been on the plan, on the financial plan, for the whole year. >> reporter: aaa expects 92.3 million americans to trek at least 50 miles from home during the christmas and new year's holidays, up more than 3% from a year ago. most of them on the road. >> the year-end holiday travel period is following a trend that we've seen throughout 2010. we've projected increases for all five of the major travel holidays, and i think that is a sign of some good news for the travel industry. >> reporter: but it's not all good news for travelers. >> about $100 to fill up an individual van. >> reporter: the price at the pump is up roughly 40 cents nationwide on average from '09. a

>> ron mott in atlanta. ron, thanks for that. >>> so who will have a white christmas and where might the travel headaches be for the rest of the weekend? for that, we turn to the weather channel's samantha moore. >> about half of the nation will have a white christmas. the last few days, that low is going to be moving across the south, transitions to rain to sleet to snow across the atlanta area, in through charlotte and raleigh-durham, as we head into our saturday and then sunday. then that low makes its way up the coast. we could see real travel woes here. boston, new york and d.c. on sunday. and into monday, we're expecting to see possible delays as a result of the wintry weather in all of our big northeast coast cities. that's just going to be the time that the folks are packing up their suitcases and leaving family visits to get back to work. possibly next week. so we'll be expecting major travel delays then. so we'll stay on top of it. >> the timing is not ideal. samantha, thank you. >>> thousands of la

nbc's ron mott has their story. >> reporter: if absence makes the heart grow fonder, 85-year-old saul dreier and his 82-year-old cousin lucy weinberg have a lot of pent-up love to share. >> 65 years. 65 years. >> a holocaust survivor, saul thought everyone in his large family was killed during that traumatic time except for a great-grandfather who died before world war ii, but in the '60s he learned cousin lucy made it out alive with him and spent more than four decades looking for her. >> amother? survivor with me. an embrace long in the making. >> we were in a family of 35 people, and everybody perished. only i survived. when i hear that she survived, at least we got two people. >> we are always together. >> reporter: in april saul found out lucy was living in canada. >> it's a miracle. >> reporter: thanks to the red cross which has helped connect survivors like saul with lost loved ones for 20 years. >> it was amazing that we were able to get them together, able to get them down here in south florida to spend the first night of hanukkah together after more than 60 years. it's incre

ron mott, nbc news, lawrenceville, georgia. >>> that's "nbc nightly news" for this sunday.ing up next, "football night in america" followed by nbc's "sunday night football," the packers versus the patriots. brian williams is here tomorrow. i'm lester holt reporting from new york. for all of us here at nbc news, new york. for all of us here at nbc news, good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

for "today," ron mott, nbc news. >> you can watch tigern the final round of the chevron world challengeto you. >> this morning on countdown to christmas, holiday wines. no matter what's for dinner we have the perfect gift to go with it. we have the executive wine editor from food & wine magazine. great to have you here. >> great to be back. >> folks will be serving a meal. >> what's the ideal wine to make everybody -- >> can we start with ham? you like a sparkling wine? >> anything salty goes great with sparkling wine. the bubbles and tartness works well with salty food. ham, no matter how you cook it there will be salt there. two options. one, go with a great classic champagne. this is a 2003. that's $60. that's the best, we'll have a wonderful christmas. >> is there a less expensive option? >> there is. this is a terrific sparkling wine which is $20 a bottle. >> right. >> it's also lovely. >> but it brings out the ham? >> it brings the flavor out. then turkey, we have all just finished having a lot of turkey, but at the end of the holidays there is a lot of turkey coming up. this is f

>> ron mott in chapel hill, north carolina. >>> "people" magazine's washington correspondent covered elizabeth edwards extensive, more recently in an article for people.com. good morning. talking to members of her family and friends, what do they tell you? >> she found out last week and is at peace with where she is right now. she has a houseful of relatives, which is how she always wanted it and they're telling stories, looking through old photos and having as many laughs as tears. >> one of the things we don't often say about elizabeth, she's a beautiful writer and this message to her supporters is a good indication of that. >> yeah, and she wrote it a couple of days ago and the family decided that once rumors started to bubble up that she had been hospitalized, that she was gravely ill, they decided, you know, let's put something out there, and she wrote something a couple days ago and they posted it for her on facebook. >> when she was here last time, she talked about her relationship with john edwards and that it had been tumultuous at best, but she said something to me. she sai