Game/Contest/Giveaway

I was born in San Antonio, TX. My parents moved to California when I was 3 and I grew up there. I did move back to TX for 4 years as a teenager but we ended up back in California for my senior year of high school...talk about hard. Anyways. Both of my parents' first language was Spanish. Neither of them even learned English until they went to school so I find it wierd that they never taught me.
Though I do not speaka da Spanish nor do I speak with any type of a Mexican accent I was raised in a traditional Mexican home. Dad was always served...never had to serve himself dinner which most always consisted of beans, rice and homemade tortillas. During the holidays, the women would get together and make tamales and on weekends we always had a BBQ with friends and family and the TexMex (Spanish) music blaring in the background. On special occasions (Easter and Mothers Day) the men would hire mariachis to come and play at our BBQ's. And as with most Mexican parties, there were like 20 adults and 2 million kids!! Yet, we'd have 6 ice chests full of beer and only 1 full of soda (and they wonder why us kids got into their beer as teens...we were freakin' thirsty!!). Just kidding, Daddy.
Anyways, us kids never cared much about the drinks because we were too busy playing. And at Easter, we were having the time of our lives!! You see, Mexicans have this tradition. And I'm not going to tell you what it is because that would be too easy. Instead, I'm going to briefly describe this fun thing we used to do and whoever can guess what it is gets 12 of them...and trust me, your kids will love 'em!! My kids and I have been getting them ready since January. This Easter, we will be introducing them to hubby's side of the family...los gringos!! When we moved to San Antonio after we were married, he was introduced to them...and even he loves 'em.
Okay, so here's your description...They are used for many different occasions but, especially Easter and are said to bring good luck. They originated in China when women used to fill them with perfume powder and give them as gifts. The wife of Emperor Maximilian brought them from China to Mexico during his rule there in 1864. The Mexicans replaced the powdered perfume with "something else" (can't tell you) and thus started this great mexican tradition. This fad did fade though and for decades was a "dead" tradition until South Texans brought them back in the 1960's. In San Antonio you can get them from from grocers to street peddlers especially during "Fiesta"(another subject for another post). They range from $1.50 a dozen to $10 for just one...depending on how intricately painted it is. I've lived in Mesa for 6 years now, and have never seen anyone with these here...I do however, only spend Easter with my family though so what do I know? Anyways, I will leave you with one last hint...they start out edible...What are they?
First one with the right answer wins!!