For Pete's Sake...

my favorite gnp columnist has a new one out - tell me this isn't the most pathetic column you've ever written. The writing style reminds me of a second grader's attempt at a book report (I like christmas. Christmas is fun. At my house we eat turkey for christmas. Turkey is a type of bird that we cook in the oven. My mother serves it with vegatables). And it goes so off topic - only to make a pathetic attempt to tie it back in at the end (uh, i really mean it when i say pathetic). Enjoy.

WRITING THE RIGHT:
Remembering the absent ones

By ANI AMIRKHANIAN

This year, my family will be celebrating a somber holiday.

With the passing of my grandmother earlier in the year, the family will be in a less festive mood than usual.

Traditionally, Armenian families forgo the celebration of the holidays in times of death and mourning.

A family get-together will often be in the memory of the loved one who passed away, but the celebration of the season will be kept to a minimum.

Family members are not the only ones who are remembered. Close family friends and acquaintances who passed on during the year are also acknowledged.

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The holidays in my household are often less traditionally celebrated than in most family households.

Gifts are opened on Christmas Eve or are saved for New Year's Day. Most Armenian families choose to tear into their gifts on the first day of the new year.

It makes sense really, new gift for the new year, is what I say.

A turkey dinner isn't on the menu and often an alternative meal is served, depending on who prepares it.

Armenian households often keep their Christmas trees in their living rooms after New Year's. The trees are not taken out until the start of Armenian Christmas, which is celebrated on Jan. 6.

The tree may be dry and brittle and the ornaments will be falling off of it, but it will be salvaged and maintained until the 6th.

I remember growing up, I was one of few students at my school who still had a tree after New Year's.

Every time I would come home from school, the tree would be taunting me with its crooked trunk and frail, dry needles.

It would get to the point that I would ask my mother when it was going to be taken away, only because I pitied the condition it was in.

After my mother noticed the physical state of the tree, she resorted to buying an artificial one.

Granted, the artificial tree did not have the same look or feel as the real one, but it served its purpose.

It didn't dry up after the New Year and it definitely lasted all the way through (and beyond) Armenian Christmas.

It is unknown whether a tree will adorn my parents' living room this year. If it does, it will be an artificial one for sure.

Here's to all the dearly departed who will be remembered in spirit. The holidays won't be the same without them.

Happy New Year, too.

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ANI AMIRKHANIAN covers education. She may be reached at (818) 637-3230 or by e-mail at ani.amirkhanianlatimes.com.