MORRIS – No matter what your favorite flavor is – strawberry, peaches and cream, raspberry or red velvet – chances are Bob and Darcy Elleson and their clan of six children are making it in paczki form.

The fourth- and fifth-generation bakers are the first to offer paczki at the family owned bakery, Morris Bakery.

"We started making them around 2000 after I saw a polish bakery featured on the news," Bob said. "It's become our biggest day of the year."

Fat Tuesday is the last hurrah before the Catholic season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. In Polish tradition, that means indulging in paczki.

Originally, mothers and grandmothers made the sweet treats as a way to use up ingredients in their kitchens before Lenten fasting began and they went to waste.

Today, the popular Polish treats are offered across the country in an array of flavors.

Morris Bakery started with 20 dozen their first year. This year, they've made 10,000 paczki to be sold in one day.

"They are so delicious and they are only available one day," Darcy Elleson said when asked why they are so popular.

The entire family – Bob, Darcy, Nick, Holly, Lauren, Jake, Carly and Ethan – were at the bakery Monday night surrounded by racks of the treat in 26 flavors.

Each person pitched in with the frying, cutting, filling and frosting as they came into the home stretch.

They start prepping fillings three days in advance. The brownies in the chocolate brownie paczki have to be baked before they can be used to create the filling, the birthday cake for the birthday cake paczki has to be baked before it can be turned into filling and the bacon – pounds and pounds of bacon – has to be cooked before it can be used for the maple bacon paczki.

Darcy Elleson said she and Bob couldn't do it without their children.

Some can only put in a few hours before they have to go home to get ready for their day job. Others will spend 24 hours or more in a row at the bakery to be ready in time.

"By the end of the day someone cries. Anything over 18 hours and someone is going to cry," Holly Elleson said.

Whether it's the stress of working with siblings or just the fatigue from preparing 10,000 paczki at some point they know someone will break down. But all that changes at 4 a.m. when the slap-happy crew gets their second wind and pulls it all together to open the doors for the morning at 4:30 a.m.

This year a strawberry shortage could have led to tears, but Bob Elleson stepped up to save the day.

After Darcy Elleson was unable to get strawberries locally last week for a cake order, Bob devised a plan.

"I picked up about 200 pounds of strawberries in Plant City, Florida and drove them the 1,200 miles home," Bob said.

He said he wanted to go see his father in Florida anyway so he decided to take the trip to pick up what the family describes as the freshest and tastiest strawberries they've ever had.

It's a good thing Bob got them because the strawberry treats are Jake and Ethan's favorite flavor. Holly and Nick prefer the maple bacon while Carly prefers the cannoli and Lauren likes the birthday cake paczki.

On Fat Tuesday the bakery only sells paczki and king cake. Patrons have to wait until the holiday is over to enjoy the typical donuts, coffee cakes, cookies and cakes the bakery sells.