CHICAGO — When Mary Mitchell gathers with family for Thanksgiving, she plans to enjoy cooking with her sister, a satisfying meal and maybe a game of charades afterward. One thing that’s not on the list: politics.

“It’s kind of a sacred time for family to be together, be thankful and enjoy a holiday,” Mitchell said Monday as she waited for a flight from New Orleans to her home in Chicago. “I really don’t think … that the political arena should be given that much power to come into your home at that time when it’s really special family time.”

Almost 49 million people are expected to travel 50 miles or more for the holiday, the most since 2007, according to AAA. Many are hoping to take a break from the rancor and division of the election between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton and instead focus on what unites them: family and tradition.

Kevin Baumann, a 47-year-old boilermaker from Spokane, Washington, belongs to a union whose members are expected to vote Democratic and is accustomed to talking politics at family gatherings, where things can get heated. But Baumann said he has no plans to bring up the subject Thursday at his parents’ house, an annual event he missed the last two years because of work.

“We’ll avoid it,” said Baumann, as he stopped in central Montana with his 27-year-old son on his way home to Washington after working on a coal plant in Iowa. “We’ve got bigger things to talk about during the holidays.”