Hello everyone. Welcome back to my participation in the Ladies of Hive weekly contest. This week my participation in the contest takes me back to memories of traditions. This topic is a fun one to share with the Community.

The holidays are all about tradition. What is your most cherished family holiday tradition? Tell us about it, how it came to be, and why it's special to you.

Holiday traditions are observed worldwide. Some of the traditions families observe revolve around food, travel, decorations, or gift giving.

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In my family, about twenty years ago, my immediate family began the tradition of gift giving on Christmas Eve. After dinner, we would exchange the one gift that our secret Santa had in store for us.

But this started before Christmas Eve. On Thanksgiving Day, we would pull names to select the person we'd give a secret gift to.

Then we had the entire time until Christmas Eve to purchase or utilize a "white elephant" gift. A white elephant gift is one that is recycled or can be new. It's your choice. I always opt for a new gift.

It's funny how all the family attempt to find out who their secret Santa is. Since I'm the one that handles the Secret Santa duties of arranging for the name exchange and assigning number, I'm the only one who knows all. And I can keep a secret, for sure!

In any event, on Christmas Eve, we gather and open our one gift from our Secret Santa. It's a fun tradition to see what everyone received.

All other gifts are saved until the next morning, on Christmas day.

So many shiny ornaments (and maybe some not so shiny). Show us your most treasured holiday ornament and tell the story behind it.

When it comes to holiday ornaments, just like Christmas and other greeting cards, I haven't met one yet I could refuse to purchase. At one point in my antique buying and collecting, I owned a nice collection of one-of-a-kind ornaments.

^{Created by me in Apophysis 2.09 Fractal Rendering program}

Of course, like with everything else, they've become lost or misplaced over the years by moving from one storage location to the other. Some ornaments were broken by the children as they helped remove them from the tree.

I haven't located my ornaments in storage yet for this year's decoration.

So instead, I created a new Holiday Ornament specifically for the Ladies of Hive Community.

I wanted to share this special fractal digital art ornament created with the fractal rendering program Apophysis 2.09. It's given to show my sincere appreciation for the enormous welcome and warm treatment I've received so far.

Since joining the Ladies of Hive Community, I have seen a family grow. A family of like-minted ladies on Hive who support and encourage each other every day. The engagement is awesome.

I truly enjoy being a part of this group and dedicate this fractal digital art Holiday Ornament to the Community.

Thanks for all you do for the ladies of Hive. Enjoy everyone, and have a good holiday season for 2021.