Favorite Movies 2009

Well, I don't know about you, but looking over our top selling media for this year embarrassed me. What shallow, silly, and often downright bad picks! I'm rather ashamed of our country.

TOP BOX OFICE HITS

1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

3. Up

4. Twillight Saga: New Moon

5. Avatar

6. The Hangover

7. Star Trek

8. Monsters Vs. Aliens

9. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

10. The Blind Side

Oh Well, it was a bad year for the movies. I've yet to see Blind Side, which is hopeful but otherwise, this year was sorry!

Still, this is focusing on the loveliness, so I scrounged through and found 3 movies that I could actually happily recommend.

Best Cartoon:

Up

I'm sure you've heard it a million times, but Pixar really did do it again!

It's funny, its sweet, and ever so original.

Best Romantic: 500 Days Of Summer

This is the first romance that doesn't end the way you expect it to. And the first romance that tells you that in the very first scene. It's tells the story in such a creative, quirky way that you fall in love, anyway.

Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt both give spot-on brilliant performances.

Best Family:

17 Again

Family films have become so predictable and stupid that its hard to find a good one. And while 17 Again wouldn't win any awards for outstanding originality, it has enough funny moments and interesting curveballs to be entertaining and amusing. There's also a bit of a thoughtful moral to encourage conversation in families.

Plus, I'm sorry, but Zac Efron is just beautiful. Left those High School Musical days behind!

I tried really hard to find a top action movie, but I really struggled. Everything was just so LAME! Haven't seen Avatar yet, maybe that will fill the spot. Lets hope!

Looking back

And so 2010 begins!

I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to the change. Its been a draining and often frustrating year...so I'm sure liking the idea of a blank page and a totally new decade! Hopefully it'll be lovely for everyone.

Before we step into all this newness, though, I thought it'd be good to take a quick look back at some of the loveliness of 2009. There were certainly some great moments, and I'd like to share some. Enjoy some encouraging stories, and some of my favorites in fashion and music.

Favorite red carpet gown:

Man, this was hard for me!! There were many absolutely gorgeous red carpet gowns, just like every year. I looked through them all and sighed with happiness at their beauty. This one, January Jone's wearing Atelier Versace at the Emmy awards kept staying in my mind.

I love the absolute uniqueness of it...haven't seen anything like it ever before! Its almost white, but barely mint green. It has an intriciate, structured bodice and a dreamy flowing skirt. The gown fits her perfectly.

And so, for it's uniqueness and beauty, I crown it my favorite gown.

I will, however, be posting some runners-up later; there were too many pretty dresses to feature just one!!

A happy news story of 2009:

Woman's Cabdriver donates his kidney

Rita Van Loenen had kidney failure, and was on dialysis 4 times monthly. She had the same taxi driver every time, Thomas Chappell. Their friendship grew through those drives, and when Mr. Chappell found out that her kidney transplant had failed, he offered to donate his own. Still, Rita was touched by her cabbie's life-changing donation offering. Of course, this was no guarantee that the kidney was going to match...

it did!

This year, Rita will receive her cabbie's kidney. The fit was perfect, the doctor's said it was as if they were siblings. What a precious story! I think it's even more precious when you see the two friends: