Still in his pajamas, 3-year-old Eli Izquieta, of Willow Street, weighs the ice cream breakfast options at Carmen & David's Creamery, Saturday morning.
Carmen & David's Creamery's appropriately titled Breakfast of Champions.
Dressed in her pajamas, Nikki Strenger, of Lancaster, takes a bite out of a doughnut sundae Saturday in celebration of International Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day.
When the door to Carmen & David's Creamery swung open at 8 a.m. Saturday, the sweet smell of sugar drifted out into the chilly winter air.
It also smelled like bacon.
The shop, at 25 N. Prince St., opened early for International Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, an offbeat holiday that reportedly originated 40 years ago with an upstate New York mother looking to beat the winter blahs.
The holiday appears to have universal appeal.
"The opportunity to have ice cream for breakfast — we couldn't pass it up," said Lizzy Hannan, of Lancaster, as she waited in a line that snaked through the shop.
Customers — many in pajamas, a few with noticeable cases of bed head — filled Carmen & David's as temperatures outside hovered just above those in the ice cream case.
The creamery's husband-and-wife owners, David Hommel and Carmen Garcia Hommel, busily scooped from a case filled with 30 homemade flavors of ice cream, sherbet and sorbet.
The staff also served up specials, including doughnuts crowned with coffee ice cream and caramel sauce, and warm waffles topped with maple walnut ice cream, maple syrup and bacon.
The specials came with coffee or orange juice, appropriate accompaniments for the early hour.
Ice-cream lovers of all ages were invited to stay in their sleepwear for the event, which included a pajama contest.
Judge Eric Rittenhouse explained his criteria: "Creativity, and a certain degree of difficulty, I think. Certainly somebody willing to wear their pajamas in public."
Hannan and her friend Molly Miller, also of Lancaster, looked like early contenders. The teens turned out in footed pajamas, with their dark hair in pigtails.
Hannan, 18, wore a pink Mickey and Minnie Mouse "onesie," while Miller, 19, sported purple Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles PJs and Ugg boots.
Both girls asked for — and received — their footed fashion statements for Christmas. "We grew up with them," Lizzy said before posing for Facebook photos.
Four-year-old Caleb Weire and his brother Caden, 2, of Lancaster, usually eat cereal or the occasional waffle for breakfast.
Caleb, wearing a Star Wars bathrobe over his jammies, contentedly licked cookies 'n cream in a pretzel cone. Caden dug into a doughnut topped with twin scoops of chocolate-chip and coffee ice cream.
Mom Kristin Weire looked longingly at the coffee scoop. "Hopefully Mommy will get some of it."
Pat Coller, of Lancaster, normally eats a healthy breakfast, like a handful of almonds and some cereal.
She picked the "healthiest" special: a waffle bowl filled with Grape-Nuts ice cream, bananas, strawberries and blueberries. (The health benefits of the whipped cream are debatable.)
"I plan not to eat too much for the rest of the day," said Coller, adding that she exercised before breakfast.
Tom and Kathy Richardson, of East Petersburg, looked to cancel out their own early-morning indulgence with exercise.
"I went to the gym," Kathy said. "I'm guilt-free."
"I'll be going later," Tom added quickly.
The Richardsons usually eat pancakes for breakfast on weekends. Their sons Quinn, 9, and Andrew, 6, talked about the novelty of early-morning ice cream all week.
"I might have to get coffee ice cream," Tom said. "I need to wake up a bit."
But he waffled when Kathy mentioned doughnuts. "There's doughnuts?"
Tom finally settled on the sundae topped with bacon. Kathy, who went with a efruit-topped treat, confessed to a case of ice-cream envy after sampling her husband's sundae.
The event supported a good cause besides satisfying ice-cream fans' cravings: Carmen & David's donated 10 percent of the proceeds to Milagro House, which provides housing and education for homeless mothers and their children.
Cathy Roman, a Milagro House board member who lives in Manheim Township, planned to take a pint of ice cream to go. "I just can't eat ice cream for breakfast," she said.
Roman's husband Mike and daughter Libby had no such problems. (The family joked that they'd also like to donate a portion of the calories to Milagro House.)
Maria Jones, of Millersville, carried her 7-month-old son Robert in a sling. She planned to give the baby, dressed in pajamas, a bib and winter hat, his first taste of ice cream.
And in the unlikely event that Robert didn't like his treat, Jones was willing to take it off his hands.
"Mom's a trouper," she said.
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