Author: maljoylove

Season’s Greetings

Posted on by maljoylove

It’s the Thursday before Christmas, and the house is about ready to receive guests. My fiance’s family will be arriving in a few hours and staying through the 26th. The house has been cleaned and a lovely festive flower arrangement sits on our coffee table… next to an animated “kids” book style edition of “Die Hard”. As a treat for the future in-laws, I made my favorite treat: apple cider donuts! They were made gluten-free, since my almost-father-in-law is gluten sensitive and my future brother-in-law has Celiac Disease. What it lacks in gluten it makes up for in taste! Now my whole house smells like apple cake. I know, apple is typically a Thanksgiving flavor, but I had apple pie at Christmas too when I was a kid. There’s no bad time for apple desserts, if you ask me!

Recipe Courtesy of Smashed Peas and Carrots. Get it here!

I made a dozen, but the dough consistency made them all split slightly. One doughnut fell down fighting in a perfect half. I decided we would split it, as a taste test. And golly, was it delicious!

I’m spending time with other family at a wedding this weekend out of town, but my flight gets me home Sunday (before Christmas Eve)! I hope I get to watch “Love Actually” or something on my flight tomorrow. It’d be arduous to watch EVERY favorite Christmas movie Monday and Tuesday.

Growing up in a Jewish household (but with a Christian father), my experience of Christmas was strictly the capitalist version that some people think ruins the holiday. I love decorating trees, baking cookies, listening to Christmas music, and most of all, giving presents! Getting presents is fun, but… I think this meme sums it up best:

I wish I had a billion dollars to buy everything for the people I love. I wish I had a time machine so I could spend Christmas morning with my fiance’s family, my family, and my friends up north. Until I get those billion dollars and until Elon Musk stops messing around and does what I’m paying him to do, I will work with my holiday budget (?) and time management that I have now. I got most of my Christmas shopping done early this year, though one gift is coming later than the rest… a seasonal coffee gift that delivers coffee every month from a different corner of the world!

It really is the most wonderful time of the year. But, I am very sleepy and still have so much to do. I’m going to get the last of my to-dos taken care of and go to sleep a bit later than usual… with visions of sugarplums dancing in my head. Sweet dreams!

The Journey Begins

Posted on by maljoylove

Thanks for joining me!

“Perfectly executed Chewbacca noise!” — Tracy Jordan, 30 Rock

autumn autumn colours autumn leaves blur
Photo by Vali S. on Pexels.com

Welcome to my blog! My name is Mallory. I am 24 years old and today, it is exactly one week before Christmas 2018. I had a lot of lofty 2018 resolutions that I did not accomplish. It is my goal to not let the same thing happen to my 2019 resolutions. This website was one of my 2018 resolutions, if not a watered down version. I set out to create a website that would show off my web development skills, creating custom CSS and coding in PHP. Alas, this was not meant to be, as my skills are more maintenance based than creation. But that said, a website has been created with the intent to move forward into 2019 with a head start! 

To kick things off, let’s KISS … I mean Keep it Simple, Silly! Here are ten facts about me:

  1. I currently work as a web support specialist for the Golf Channel, owned by one of my favorite companies in the world… NBC (xylophone jingle in the distance). I help other people with their websites, making them look pretty and updating things that golf course employees may not know how to do. It’s a fun job, and my coworkers are always full of positive energy. 
  2. I live in Orlando, but can’t wait to move! I love being so close to Disney that I can hear the fireworks, THAT part is magical. But there’s traffic, everything else is far away, and the HEAT! My goodness, the heat. I’m ready to move to a bustling city (THE bustling city, where I will avoid the traffic by walking and taking the subway), or somewhere blooming and idyllic, like Austin or Denver. The ultimate dream would be to move back to Burlington, Vermont, where I went to college and fell in love with autumn colors. They don’t really have the job market for my return, yet. In time though, who knows? 
  3. My favorite color is purple, but I always wear black. 
  4. If you couldn’t tell from fun fact 1: I love NBC sitcoms. I  can talk your ear off about “The Office,” “Parks and Recreation,” “30 Rock,” “Scrubs,” and premiering this spring, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.”
  5. My favorite movie is “Almost Famous.” Other movies on my top 10 list include “Inglorious Basterds,” “Psycho,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and “The Devil Wears Prada.” 
  6. Music makes me happy! My favorite song is “Tiny Dancer” by Elton John, and my favorite band is Panic! at the Disco. The first Beatles song I ever heard was “Here Comes the Sun,” and I’ve loved them ever since. I’m currently experiencing a love of lo-fi music. Some chill tunes while I start and end my day keep my head on straight.
  7. I’ve got a genetic case of wanderlust. My mom has traveled the world and back, and I’m just a few decades behind her! I was lucky enough to study abroad in England in 2015, and while in Europe I visited Wales, Ireland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. Switzerland and Italy are at the top of my list right now! I want to visit every continent before I die. 
  8.  I love food. It feels weird to spout this as a fun fact about me, considering the my weight loss journey, but I should embrace every part of me. While I love to eat, I also love to bake! I’ve got a great chocolate chip cookie recipe, and one time I used a brownie recipe as a jumping off point and somehow created the greatest peanut butter brownie you’ve ever had. Now I just gotta remember how I did that.
  9. I’m a work in progress. I want to be a hardworking woman, who tops the Forbes List and gets her face on the cover of Vogue for doing it (the headline I have in mind is “Having it All: Mallory Joy’s Journey to Completion”). I feel like my mind is cloudy now, and I’m hoping for clear skies to brighten my way.
  10. Okay, I get it– why “Mal Like Maple”? I don’t know why the name occurred to me on the treadmill this morning, but it did. I put maple syrup in everything! I’ve gone down the vegan path and thus avoid honey nine times out of ten, which makes maple my sweetener of choice. It starts with an “M,” as does my first name, and like maple syrup I’m thick and sweet. 
    Sorry, I had to throw that one in there. 

Post one complete! I spent $90 on this. That’s a good investment in my future, right? Branding?