Best Games of 2009 – Many of our users, once on the All My Faves homepage, choose the Games page as their next AMF stop. These large volumes of visitors is what prompted us to create the games version of our Weekly Faves, called Weekly Games, the highlight of every week’s top games. As 2009 is drawing to a close, we asked you, our users, to rate your top Weekly Games of 2009. To make it easier for you, we narrowed more than 500 games down to the best 32 games, and invited you to nominate your champions.

Your votes produced the ten winners, and Click Play 2 is at the top of those 10, scoring the most votes, and thus making it the best game of 2009. Runner-ups are Crush the Castle and Fat Slice. See the complete list of kings and queens below. I would appreciate your comments; let me know which game is your personal favorite -mine is Dog Fight. Before we opened users’ access to voting the AMF team did some guessing on what games will be chosen, and we were were surprised to see that Bubble Spinner and Little Wheel didn’t make it to the ten winners’ list. Then again, that’s the beauty in giving power to the people.

So we are heading strong for a new year, and I know 2010 will be even more exciting than 2009. I can assure you that we will keep on sharing the best games out there. So stay tuned, and don’t forget to follow us on our games facebook fan page.

• 1. – Click Play 2
• 2. – Crush the Castle
• 3. – Fat Slice
• 4. – Learn to Fly
• 5. – Bunni
• 6. – Meeblings 2
• 7. – Dog Fight 2
• 8. – Growbox
• 9. – Toss the Turtle
• 10. – Papa’s Pizzeria

Norad – This Santa tracking tool was featured here in our blog last year, where we discussed the history of the NORAD organization, so there’s no need to repeat those details. What’s important is that it’s a great tool for kids and Santa groupies who seek to keep an eye on the whereabouts of the most famous white bearded man on Earth…. Even though Christmas is now officially over, the NORAD site still offers wonderful features worth exploring, such as the videos page, where you can see Santa’s sledge, led by faithful Rudolf, passing just above the pyramids of Egypt and other geographic locations worldwide. And if you missed out on Santa’s route of gift giving, there’s always next year!

43 Things – New Year Resolutions are big and prevalent in the US and beyond, with millions of people all over vowing to lose wait, quit smoking and pursuing many other life changing paths. 43 Things is a terrific tool to help you accomplish whatever you desire by offering customizable lists, tips and support. Not only is this a valuable aid to get you on the right track for a better life, but its web 2.0 aspect offers the supportive buddy system to its user audience for enhanced goal realization potential.

So what exactly are people wishing for themselves? With over 2 million registered users, 43 Things offers a glimpse to the top trends of 2010, and also provides an insightful report on this year’s resolutions (2010), compared to those of previous years. At All My Faves we were so impressed by this website that we added it to our Happy Holidays page, under the New Year Resolution faveline. Check out this faveline for more NYR ideas and start the year with ample optimism and good will.

Flight Caster – Flight times are always prone to change, and delays are not caused only due to bad weather. If you wish to stay on top of your flight’s actual departure time, you could visit (and re-visit) your airline’s website or call that 1-800 number. However, FlightCaster offers an even better service, sending delay alerts up to 6 hours before airlines’ notification. Moreover, there is a FlightCaster iPhone/Blackberry application available ($7.99 on the App Store) which will really come in handy when you don’t have computer access.

GivesMeHope – When I entered into the GiveMeHope website, it reminded me of Fmylife, ItMadeMyDay and MyLifeIsAverage. Out of curiosity I checked out their about us to see if it was somehow connected to one of these sites. Guess what? Turns out “GivesMeHope.com was founded in May 2009 in response to the popular site, FMyLife.com (FML). On FML, people share stories explaining how their day was completely ruined, we love FML, but FML can be a downer…. That’s why we created GivesMeHope.com. GMH is where people share with the world their most hopeful, uplifting moments and allow others to draw strength from their experiences.”

I truly admire the GMH approach, but will it work for them? I certainly hope so, even though I personally believe people favor ranting over giving positive praises for something or someone. Only time will tell if GiveMeHope will be as successful as Fmylife. In the meantime, here’s my favorite hope: “Today when I was working an adorable older couple came through my line. When I asked if they had found everything they needed, the woman looked at her husband and said ‘I found everything I needed 43 years ago.'”

You AUGHT To Remember – Can you believe we’re at the end of the first decade of the 21st century? As with any end point, 2009’s finish is a good time for bottom line conclusions, all the more so when we’re at the closing of a decade. You AUGHT To Remember has taken up the task of counting down “the 100 trends, fashions, memes, personalities and ideas that shaped the first decade of the 21st Century.”

The list is quite remarkable and fascinating, involving posts accompanied by an explanation on why this or that entry made it to the list and constituting an influencing factor during the second millennium’s first decade. I went through the list (as of today, 95 out of 100 entries are listed), and my favorite ones are Wii, Lacoste Polo Shirts, Reality TV, Vitamin Water and Sex & The City/Desperate Housewives. As I am writing this post there are five more to go, so stay tuned.

MyRecipes – Cooking delicious meals doesn’t necessarily mean toiling for hours on end in the kitchen. Now that Christmas dinners are over and done with (thank god!), we can get back to the easy going cooking attitude. Whether you’re not a big fan of preparing dishes more complex than an omelet, or you’re a gourmet fanatic craving for sophisticated dishes, check out MyRecipes. It’s a comprehensive, user-rated resource for all things cooked, and also offers great tips and information on spirits, beers and cocktails. If you’re wondering what MyRecipes had for the Christmas dinner, here’s their menu. And below is a mouth-watering photo of this terrific Chicken Parmesan recipe I found interesting (it scored a whopping 5 star rating!).

Sketcharoo – Guessing games are always fun (as long as these remain within the context of entertainment and recreation). Pictionary is a well known guessing game and an all time favorite, but as of yet it has no official online multiplayer version. Otago University in New Zealand has created exactly such a game as “part of a research project at the Department of Design Studies, University of Otago New Zealand.” Their aim is “to investigate games that translate ‘serious work tasks’ into multi-user online games and to compare them to conventional online surveys.” Why not participate in a mutually beneficial project where users contribute to the University’s research, while having a hell of a time playing Sketcharoo? I needn’t say more, it’s quite obvious. Here’s to Otago U’s Department of Design Studies – great job guys!

Oddly Specific – While waiting in line at the Post Office (had to run some errands), I played around with my cell phone’s camera but there wasn’t anything of real interest to shoot. To keep myself occupied during the wait, I started taking pictures of different signs I saw, with the No Smoking sign doing a special appearance in my shoot. Then I started thinking about the variation of No Smoking signs in all the different places I visited in my lifetime…. I think this could be a great idea for a website, don’t you? If you find interest in signs, especially the ones that mean well but are poorly executed, be sure to visit Oddly Specific. It’s a “strangely particular website about peculiarly exacting signs.” The best part about Oddly Specific is that their collection of signs from all over the world is absolutely hilarious. Caution: a wave of humor is just around the corner….

Pigeon: Impossible – It took Writer/Director Lucas Martell five years to create Pigeon: Impossible, but it was well worth the wait. Pigeon: Impossible is an amazing short animated video, and I was mesmerized throughout the entire 6:15 minutes of it. What is it about? “Pigeon: Impossible is the tale of Walter, a rookie secret agent faced with a problem seldom covered in basic training: what to do when a curious pigeon gets trapped inside your multi-million dollar, government-issued nuclear briefcase.” If by any chance Lucas is reading this post, I would like to ask him when he plans on releasing the sequel to this most adorable creation. I hope it won’t take him five more years. Enjoy!

Christmas Cannon – A wickedly fun seasonal treat for all those keen on helping Santa test his experimental Christmas Cannon. Using Santa’s elves as human cannonballs, this Christmas game is OK, but not fabulous. If you are looking for the best game sites featured this year on our Weekly Games, check out our list of the 32 games nominated for Best Games of 2009. But be sure to vote as well as play these great gems of recreation! Winners will be announced on December 30th on our Weekly Games page.

All My Faves Vote 2009 – All My Faves is excited to announce its very first user-based vote for 2009’s most amazing websites! Choose your top 5 websites out of the list of 40 Weekly Faves we’ve compiled for you, and help to select the 10 winning sites of 2009. How did we choose these 40 websites? It wasn’t easy; the All My Faves team reviewed over 500 websites -featured as Weekly Faves throughout the year- and pinned down the top forty for you to choose from.

How to vote: no registration or login is required. Simply check the boxes of the websites you feel deserve the crown and hit Submit. Please note that you are limited to 5 votes per day. Submit your votes until December 27th, and feel free to leave your comments and site suggestions in case you feel we left out a smashing site. And don’t forget to stay tuned – winners will be announced on December 28th. Be sure to also check out our Best Games of 2009 page and vote for your favorite games out of the 32 Weekly Games listed. Brace yourself; tough choices ahead.