This week, reader Otto R. clued me into the very cool history behind a white elephant gift exchange. According to legend, it actually started with white elephants! Apparently the King of what is now Thailand used to give the animals as a passive-aggressive sort of gift to people he didn't like. Sure, it seemed extravagant and generous, but what's someone supposed to do with a whole white elephant? And they couldn't just get rid of the gift without seeming disrespectful. Now, the gifts are far less extravagant, but still carry an odd mix of uselessness and thoughtfulness. Sort of puts that statue of Santa playing football (a real white elephant gift I have given) in a whole new light.

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Our favorites this week

Get going with some of our most popular good news stories of the week

Recipes from the heart
Old community cookbooks are a special kind of treasure. They can tell you so much about a family or neighborhood or faith community -- and there's delicious food to boot! Dusty Hudgins was going through his late mother's things when he found old cookbooks of hers from when she worked in a school cafeteria in Abeline, Texas in the 1960s and '70s. One that stood out was titled "Our Favorite Recipes" and included recipes loved by women who worked in the same schools as his mom. Hudgins posted the find to an area Facebook group, where it was overwhelmed with love. So many people shared memories and connections to the book, he decided to find the publisher and get copies reissued, which he is now selling for charity. Each recipe has the name of the cook attached, and they range from Southern favorites like cornbread and barbecue chicken to some vintage gems like chicken loaf with fruit.

A place of honor
This week marked the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and thanks to the thoughtfulness of his daughter and dozens of kind strangers, a 101-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor was able to attend the remembrance ceremony in Hawaii. Ike Schab was on a docked ship when the attack occurred in 1941. His daughter, Kimberlee Heinrichs, knew he deserved to attend the event on December 7, but medical and financial limitations made it seem impossible. Schab needed two caregivers to travel, and the organization taking veterans could only provide for one. Luckily, Heinrichs was able to raise money through generous donations on GoFundMe. Schab made it to Hawaii, and unsurprisingly, became something of a star. A Twitter account purportedly run by Heinrichs shows Schab visiting all the old familiar places, and enjoying time with other veterans. Schab has been to similar ceremonies before. "I like that when I go there are reminders of people and things from a long time ago. People I miss. It brings back memories," he said. Oh, and if you browse all of the photos the family took during this week's event, you WILL cry.

Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images

The Aristocats
Roaming the grounds of the State Hermitage Museum, in St. Petersburg, Russia are a group of cats that are treated like royalty. After all, they kind of are -- the museum is the site of the former Winter Palace, the official residence of Russia's ruling tsars. The cats are fed and cared for by the staff at the Hermitage and there's even a special room just for cats who grow tired of mingling with commoners. The museum even has a dedicated press secretary for the cats! They were added to the site in the 1990s by the museum's director to give a human (or feline?) face to the wealth of historic treasures housed therein. The cats now mainly prowl the basement, catching mice and walking among the museum's more than three million works of art and artifacts. Oh, what a life!

A bright idea

Spending a lot of time in space sounds cool, but it's not without its downsides. Astronauts on long missions of six months or more sometimes have problems with their eyes, because the lack of gravity affects fluid pressure in their brains. This can cause vision problems when they get back to Earth. However, a new type of sleeping bag could help change that. The bag, developed in conjunction with REI, pulls fluids away from the brain the same way that gravity usually would on Earth. They don't exactly look comfortable -- but if it keeps the astronauts' eyes safe, that's all that matters, especially during future planned missions that could last a year or more.

You gotta see this

Paul Mckenzie/Mkapa Awards

Take a guess at what this photo depicts. Looks like a luminescent galaxy or something, right? It's actually an aerial view of the mud flats of Lake Natron in Tanzania, where flamingos gather to feed in the shallow, algae-rich waters. The shot is one of the nearly 80 beautiful visuals honored by the African Wildlife Foundation's inaugural Benjamin Mkapa African Wildlife Photography Awards. The competition, named after the late Tanzanian president and longtime AWF board member, hopes to encourage African people to take a more active role in conservation. After all, as CEO Kaddu Sebunya said, all of this beauty and life is part of their heritage. Check out the rest of the stunning photos here.

Heroes among us

You've read their stories. You've cast your votes. Now it's time to celebrate with CNN Heroes and their top ten Heroes of 2021!

Tonight, enjoy a look back on the history of this amazing initiative. CNN Heroes: 15 Years of Changing the World airs Saturday at 9 pm ET on CNN.

Then, on Sunday night at 8 pm ET, find out who will be honored as 2021 CNN Hero of the Year! The 15th Annual CNN All-Star Tribute will feature Rachel Brosnahan, Chris Meloni, Lynda Carter, Josh Groban, Rachel Zegler and a host of other special guests. They'll join CNN's Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa in honoring the ten 2021 finalists and announcing CNN's Hero of the Year. CNN has also partnered with GoFundMe to enable donations to all of this year’s honorees so they can continue their world-changing work. Visit here to see how your contribution can go twice as far thanks to dollar-for-dollar matching.

Both of these special programs will air on CNN, and Sunday's tribute will also be streaming live via CNNgo and CNNgo apps for Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast, Samsung Smart TV and Android TV. It will also stream live on the CNN mobile apps for iOS and Android. Afterward, the special will be available on demand beginning Monday via cable/satellite systems, CNNgo platforms and CNN mobile apps.

Who knew?

(Warning: this story is not for weak stomachs!) What's the world's most dangerous cheese? It's a question you've probably never considered before. There is, however, a good answer: Casu Marzu, a kind of cheese made only on the Italian island of Sardinia. In fact, it's illegal to buy or sell. Why? Well, it has to do with the fact that maggots are a main ingredient. As the salty pecorino cheese ages, cheese skipper flies lay their eggs in the cracks. Maggots then make their way through the paste, transforming it into a soft creamy cheese. Casu Marzu lovers actually eat the final product as-is, maggots and all. Some cheesemakers spin the cheese through a centrifuge to merge the maggots with the rest of it. While both serving suggestions may be hard to swallow, some people worry that ingesting maggots could be hazardous to human health, though no such issues related to Casu Marzu have been reported.