Holidays among the stars

I'm a little behind on these photos thanks to the craziness of Christmas with the family. But one of the coolest events I have ever been too happened at 2009's Animation Mentor Holiday Party. The entire party theme was kept secret, we were told to meet at the Claremont hotel and be ready to be shipped to our location. That location turned out to be...


The Chabot Observatory!

Most companies throw parties where employees have a good time; at our parties your have a good time and actually learn something in the process. The many exhibits became party decorations full of fascinating information. Between hors d'uoevres and drinks we read about the asteroid belt and Uranus...


A meteorite served as desert garnishes while a giant rotating Earth accented the bar...



Each table also had "star hats" which no normal person would be caught wearing, but we are anything but normal at AM...


A good time was had by all!


Although the open bar made learning more difficult as the night went on, it did make the smoke machines and oversize lava lamps for more amusing.



Finally, the one part I have no pictures of is us going to the three observatories, which were open for us throughout the night, to view different celestial bodies in motion. I felt bad for the astronomers manning the telescopes as I can only guess how distracting it can be to try to do work while 75 inebriated people file through your workspace. But they seemed to be having a good time (I'm sure the food and drinks available to them helped, not to mention the funds).

Finally, we ended the night with dancing (not pictured to protect the innocent) and gifts to everyone in the company!


I have no idea how we will top this in 2010, they'll probably have to fly us to the space station...