The second Thanksgiving David was at CMU, I started looking into plane flights home. It was gonna cost over $400! He was coming home within three weeks after Thanksgiving anyway, so I called him and asked if he minded NOT coming home until Christmas. He was relieved that I suggested it because he had several projects due in the week after Thanksgiving and was concerned that coming home would make it harder to get them done. Each year after that, he didn't come home for T'giving, but stayed for 3 weeks at Christmas.
I could probably get home for, oh, $250, but that's too much for me and for a week... and two days of that consumed by travel... it's really not worth it. I'd be tempted to go home over spring break but I can't do that, either (required to stay on for my job, but I knew that coming in).