It can be Easter in May

So, I know that Easter was a month ago, but theoretically we should be thinking about Christ and celebrating his wonderful sacrifice all year long (and I never got around to posting this), and what better way to celebrate Easter then through chocolate eggs! So, Happy Easter everybody!!!


First off Easter eggs are a BIG deal in Iceland!!! When that is said I can begin my story.

Now the Icelandic Easter eggs aren't your standard issue chocolate eggs or figurines. No, the Páskaegg are more like a combination of a big, hollow chocolate figurine, a apiñata and a fortune cookie - ALL IN ONE! How cool is that! And because they are such a BIG deal they even come in different versions and sizes. The most common ones are probably the regular milk chocolate (which Markús and I got) and then the milk chocolate with small pieces of black licorice blended into it. (why? I love black licorice and I love chocolate. But together? No!). Binni got this one. He, like most Icelanders, love the combo. 
However, they have all sorts of flavors. They have milk chocolate with crunchy cookies in them, with caramel pieces in them, with smarties in them, with rice puffs in them and dark chocolate eggs. I am probably forgetting a few...

They are so much a part of the culture up here that people talk about them as a normal conversation topic starting a few weeks before Easter. I myself had several conversations with both kids and adults about what egg I was thinking about buying and why... And it's not just me! 

Here is what we ended up buying:

Markús had a # 2 (85g) milk chocolate egg from Nói
Binni had a # 7 (650g) black licorice egg from Goa
Mine was a whopping 1 kg! (I don't even remember the number but it was bigger then Binni's) milk chocolate egg from Bonus.



Even though this wasn't Markús' first Easter, it was the first one where he was big enough to have chocolate. (Not that we give him chocolate all the time, but like I stated in the beginning Easter eggs are a BIG deal in Iceland) So we were really excited about getting him his own egg. 

Another tradition surrounding the Easter eggs is that you hide them, or the parents hide them for the kids who then hunt around the house looking for them. I hid Markús' under his green bucket in the middle of the kitchen floor.

He got so excited when he got his egg that he ran around with it in the plastic for a while before even trying to open it. When we finally took it out of the plastic for him he wouldn't stand still for a picture, but kept running around "hiding" and eating it in his favorite spots in the kitchen (e.g. in front of the fridge, under the counter, in the doorway etc). 

Here are two pictures of him going to town on his egg:

When it started melting to much we broke it into pieces and put them in his green bucket. He then got a little bit at the time over the next few days.

Even though mine was the biggest (I can't say that enough!) Binni's was the one that lasted the longest and I think he kind of planned it that way. Since Markús had more then enough in his own egg and I didn't like the chocolate/licorice combo in his egg, he had his egg all to himself whereas I, being the generous person that I am, share mine with the people around me. Also, going on a road trip with Binni's brother Matti and our friends Paul and Brittany the day after Easter helped put a nice dent in it. So even though I had a 1 kg egg, I hardly think I had more then a maximum of 200g of chocolate myself... (or at least that is what I am telling myself). :)

Happy Easter everybody and a Merry Christmas now that we are at it...