MOM! Santa doesn't like diet coke!!!

As one of Jehovahs Witnesses, I don't celebrate Christmas, Easter, Birthdays, ETC. But, I wasn't born a Jehovahs Witness and before my mom and I started studying with them we did celebrate Christmas up until I was about eleven years old. This is about the time my mom and I started to affiliate ourselves with Jehovahs Witnesses. During those eleven years never ONCE did my family and I ever leave out cookies and milk for "Santa Claus."

Although its hard to tell if you look at me, I have a great deal of Mexican heritage in my blood line. Its easier to see when you look at my mother. And my mothers hispanic father (or my papa) owned a restaraunt, and passed down a great deal of his hispanic recipes, cookbooks, and "secrets" to my mom. So the short and short of it is, she makes a mean authentic enchilada. My dad loves Mexican food, and he LOVES my moms cooking. Since he is was our secret "Santa", he got to decide what we laid out for Santa on Christmas Eve. My dad isn't a huge sugar fan, he is more of a salty person. Apparently he wasn't thrilled with the idea of having to eat a whole package of cookies in the middle of the night. So he decided that "Santa gets so tired of milk and cookies! Mandy, there isn't enough protein in that! We are going to mix it up, and give him a little variety. He would so appreciate moms enchiladas, and some diet coke." U remember my toddler sized voice rising in panic saying: "BUT DAD SANTA DOESN'T LIKE DIET COKE! HE WANTS COOKIES AND MILK! WHAT IF HE DOESN'T LIKE THE ONIONS???" Then my dad told me that Santa would probably send bigger presents because he like the enchiladas so much. And here starts the family tradition of making Santa homemade enchiladas and diet coke.

As anybody who has ever made authentic mexican food before, it is generally an all day project. This is how we used to spend Christmas Eve. As a family Christmas Eve moved way too slow, so we had to fill the day with activies to distract us. So we would start our mornings early by heading to the grocery store and getting all of the ingredients needed to make enchiladas. All four of us (at the time my younger brother and sister weren't yet born) would go, and split up into twos and gather all of the nececssary items. I remember always trying to race my brother through the isles to see who could get all of their items to the checkout line first. (We would generally split up me and my dad, vs. my brother and my mom)

After this hour and a half long excursion, we would head home and the first thing we would do is make homemade salsa. Since part of the tradition is not eating a big meal unitl dinner, but rather just snacking all day, we would snack on chips, salsa, and plain tortillas all day. After we set up the snack food on the table, we would set to work making the enchiladas. The memories are a little fuzzy now, because I was never fond of cooking so the hours of making the enchiladas was never incredibly fun for me. My goal was to sneak as much cheese as i could inbetween layering the tortillas while my parents weren't looking. That was probably the only reason I didn't just go find something else to do.

Inbetween the hours of baking the giant, heavy pans of enchiladas (one without onions for me and my brother, one beef, and one chicken), we would play games to pass the time along. Eventually dinner time would come, and the excitement would build. After all, salsa and tortillas can only fill you up to a certain point before you feel as if you are starving to death. We would eat, and eat, and eat until there was a noticeable different in how our bellys looked. Then we would sit and talk about good of cooks we all are, and speculate on what Santa might be bringing for christmas. Eventually my little brother would start yawning and nodding off, and my parents would start cleaning up the dinner mess. My job was always to clear the table, by then the enchilada pans weren't as heavy and easier to carry to the kitchen. Then without being told, I would get out the glass, the fork, the knife, and the plate for Santa. My dad would drop a large amount of enchiladas onto the plate, dollop a generous serving of sour cream on top, and poured the diet coke with ice. (How my dad could go back for seconds after that huge meal, AND drink lukewarm coke I will NEVER know)

Every year I used to get so stressed about Santa not liking the food, I never liked being different. But every year, the enchiladas were gone and a thank you note was left. (Typed, so we couldn't recognized the handwriting) I would wake up and run to the kitchen to make sure he ate it all, and then wake everybody in the house and go wait by the tree. It never dawned on me how my dad used to look so sick and bloated in the morning.

So as one of Jehovahs Witnesses, I dont miss Christmas, but I do miss the enchilada tradition. After I told my mom that one day, we designated one day out of the year to enchilada day. So now, once a year we do this enchilada tradition. Only now, my dad doesn't have to eat two giant helpings!

....Is A Community

The kingdom preaching work is a community. As one of Jehovahs’ Witnesses I take part in a world-wide preaching work. Across the globe all Jehovahs’ Witnesses are saying the same message. We are a world-wide community, but we are also a small and close-knit community. We are divided up into congregations based on location, and we work in groups of four to six. All of Jehovahs’ Witnesses make an effort to go out in the field ministry at least once a week. Our goal is to bring a hopeful and positive message from Gods’ Word to the people around us.
As a group, we are all striving after the same goal, and the united effort towards that goal is what makes us a community. Globally we are telling the world about the heavenly kingdom that is soon to be brought to Earth. We do this because of the command given at Mathew 24:14 to “preach to the entire inhabited earth…” Our love for The Bible and Jehovah is what holds our community together. We work together as harmoniously as we can because we are trying to live our lives as close to biblical guidelines as possible.
The regular preaching work that we participate in is one of our primary needs. This work is a need because by following God’s commandments we get to draw close to Him. We also need this because of the association and encouragement we receive from one another. Another need we have as a group is our weekly congregational meetings. In these meetings we have public discourses that provide spiritual encouragement. That spiritual food we receive is a need of our community. As a group we genuinely love each other, and try our best to keep each other’s chins up in the stressful times we live in. This is where the public meetings and associated come in.
Since the individuals in our community all share the same values and needs, there is very rarely ever a disturbance in how our community runs. As flawed humans though, it is possible for personal differences can get in the way of the cohesion of our community. These differences are usually about offensive statements, and are always solved between the two people very quickly. Since our focused goal is to tell people about Gods’ Kingdom, we try very hard NOT to let these personal differences get in the way. Our motives towards each other are good and because of that, minor differences never stand for long against our unity in the ministry.
I want to be a part of this community because of the biblical knowledge they share. Every question I have had, they have used the bible to answer it for me, and they have shown me the answer in my own bible. I want to live my life in harmony with Gods’ Word, and His word tells me to preach the news of his word. So that is what I do.
There are many reasons that I fit into this group. The main reason is because like the rest of my community, I have an intense, unwavering love for Jehovah. This love is what drives us to talk with the people around us. Whether we are shy, outgoing, charismatic, or awkward, we all take part in this activity because of the love for our God. So even if I may not agree with a fellow kingdom proclaimer about a minor subject, we share a deeper bond; and that is what holds our community together.

Whats In My Wallet?

Reading the story about the man whose wallet was returned to him was very fascinating. Having a wallet returned to you after forty six years would be similar to reading an old childhood diary. Opening it up would be like entering ghostlike memories, a way of going back in time. What about the people who found the wallet? Would they know that it had been missing for forty six years? Would they guess who the pictures in the wallet were in the mans life? What would people think about me and my wallet?

As we unzip the top of my wallet, the zipper gets stuck on a bunch of receipts. Pulling the receipts out you see the torn up edges, and the coffee stain directly in the middle of the bunch. Three of the receipts are book receipts from the college book store. Looking at these you could figure out a great deal of information about me. You would find out my name is Amanda Goodrich. You could guess what classes I'm taking at the Everett Community College based off my book selection. You would know the last four digits of my Visa number. You would see the dates of when I bought the books, so you would know that I had lost my wallet recently.You would be able to assume I attended full time based on how many books were bought per quarter. You would know this is my second quarter at the college. After sifting through college receipts you would find at least seven library receipts. The ones you get when your checking out books that let you know when your books will be overdue. These receipts would tell you my book preferences, what library I regularly go to, and how recently I had visited that library.

After putting aside all the receipts, you would come across my assortment of cards. On top of the stack is my well-worn library card. After looking through the receipts, and seeing how frayed my library card is, you would probably assume I am a regular visitor of the public library. Following that would come an Oregon State Identification Card. This would give you simple information. I am an overweight, auburn haired, green eyed seventeen year old. It would tell you when I bought the ID card. Looking at the card, you would assume I just moved from Oregon, or that I still live there and I am just visiting Washington. After my ID card would come my Visa debit card. If a dishonest person found my wallet, this would be a very useful piece of information for them. Since it has my account number, name, three digit code, and everything else needed to take money out of my bank account. Last but not least comes my No Blood card. This card tells you the most important information about me. It states that in a medical emergency, under no circumstance am I to be given a blood transfusion, plasma, or any sort of blood product. It would state my contact in the case of an emergency, which would be my parents. It would also name blood free products that I would allow to be used in my body in place of blood. The No Blood card would also give you my current address. After putting all these belongings to the side, you would look in the wallet and find it empty.

I tried to do this assignment as if I was the stranger who found the wallet, and what I believe this person was like. If I was a stranger looking into this wallet, I would assume that the owner spends a large amount of time reading. After looking at receipts and seeing how many books were checked out, I might assume this person was lonely, and isolated. Being a stranger, the No Blood card would baffle me. Without doing any research on the card, I might assume this person is into homeopathic medicine, rather than pharmaceutical medicine. After figuring out that this person is in school full time, I would assume they don't have a job. Then, based off the Visa, I would assume this person lived at home, and her parents were giving her money to live off of.

If this was the evaluation people would have of me and my wallet, they would unfortunately miss a great deal of information about my values. The No Blood card is in there because I am a Jehovah's Witness. As a Jehovah's Witness I do not give or receive blood or blood products. Although you would also rightly assume I am a strong believer in homeopathic medicine. Also, I read a large amount of books, not because I am lonely, but because I enjoy learning. I highly value my education, and I am constantly trying to attain interesting historical facts. Also, the only reason I have a visa is to hold the money from my Pell Grant. My parents do not give me money, because I like to earn my own money. I am not the type of person who likes things handed to me on a platter. Unfortunately these values would be hard to read from my wallet.

After doing this assignment, I felt the need to include a note saying the things that the contents of my wallet could not. I had to stop myself and realize how silly that would be. In reality, the person who finds my wallet doesn't care if I am a spoiled, friendless, hippie or if I am a religious and overachieving college student. The truth is, I shouldn't care what they think of my wallet either, I should just be thankful that they were honest enough to return it to me. Although I must confess, if my wallet is ever lost, I will worry about the person who finds it impression of me and my values. Hopefully, my wallet will never be lost, and stay tucked in between the cluster of pens and pencils in the front flap of my backpack.

Test Blog =)