One of my Favorite Family Traditions

Some years ago I discovered Kinder Surprise Eggs in Canada, and as things go I made sure my family and friends had them for Christmas. Each chocolate Kinder egg has a plastic capsule inside, fitted with a toy inside to assemble. Some toys can be pretty complicated, but they are all really fun to build. My family likes to build them in mass quantities then participate in horse-trading the coolest of them afterwards. I understand these eggs are sold worldwide, but in my limited experience German toys are the most complicated and hardest to assemble. Many people collect the toys, as there are 120 new toys introduced each year. Little did I know when I drug them home to my family that they were also very addictive.

Since they are illegal to sell in this country, we now spend time every year ferreting them out on the internet for Christmas. Ebay was a bonanza for a while, but they discontinued when someone cracked down on them. Then we shopped Canadian sites on the internet and found them for several years. This year it took weeks to find someone to send them, and they arrived declared "toys" and not "candy" on the customs form. I always thought that they were banned from the U.S.A. because some yahoo somewhere would give these tiny parts to a baby and then sue. But when I questioned the shipper this year I found that the ban is not the small plastic toys, but that Hershey Chocolate has lobbied to keep this chocolate out of the states. It is traditional European milk chocolate, with hazelnut coating inside, and it is truly delicious. Since there are no other additives, I can't imagine why Hershey would want these banned. >>wink<<

So Kinder Christmas once again observed here...Yay!