Can Pope Francis get any better?

"I invite even non-believers to desire peace. (Join us) with your desire, a desire that widens the heart. Let us all unite, either with prayer or with desire, but everyone, for peace," he said, drawing sustained applause from the crowd.
Source

 

Merry Christmas Eve, y'all.

 

I'm very happy with my book tree.

Dare me to?

 

Above picture was sent to me tonight by Book Buddy and all-around good friend Stephanie. She knew I'd love it. And I do.I will put my tree on the sun room. Very excited! Being vaguely pagan, heathen, or at least a-religious I'm not much of a Christmas person, but I do worship books so what could be more perfect?

I hope no one is offended by this hilarious Christmas card sent by the always droll Mz. Margo from San Francisco.

I was going to post about peat moss but then my cousin sent me this video and I thought better of it.

This non-believing, cynical skeptic found this video to be so uplifting. No matter what your religious beliefs, if any, how can you possibly not appreciate the beauty of this piece of music?

I can bitch about peat moss any day.

Some of the great stuff I got for Christmas.

Watering can from recycled stuff:

A Pantone coffee mug:

A book of lists:

Salad tongs from recycled stuff:

Over the river and through the woods to Aunt Elaine's house we went. And along the way we passed these sweet emus, who probably aren't all that sweet.

And I learned, from Erin who is sweet, about ostriches and emus. And that led me to learn about the word "Gondwana." I knew about the landmass but not the name. Gondwana. It rolls nicely off the tongue.
From USAToday online:
"... ostriches and emus ... apparently share a common ancestor who lived long ago on the gigantic landmass, Gondwana. When Gondwana broke up about 75 to 85 million years ago, Africa split off, and then Australia/Antarctica sailed slowly away.... With a widening ocean between them, the ostriches and emus were forced to evolve separately thereafter. At least, this is the best current theory."