Before our Squids trek back to their respective homelands for the holidays, our amazing HR department worked tirelessly to bring an early holiday bash to the Squid Tank. Last week’s festivities included a filling lunch at Red Fish Grill, soothing massages from Balance Massage, holiday bartending tips from Ralph & Kacoo’s, holiday film favorites, ornament arts-and-crafts, and the star of the show: The TurboSquid Gingerbread Throwdown.
Our staff was divided into teams and issued one challenge: create the best gingerbread house, to rule them all. Each team was handed a box of graham crackers and an assortment of candies, though they were allowed to bring extra decorations from home to aid their creativity— and they didn’t disappoint.
One of the party organizers, Deanna Sparkman (our VP of Human Resources), was surprised that an office full of tech folks was so on board with the contest. “ I think the neatest part of the whole experience, for me, was coming up with this idea and inviting the judges. When I walked into the judging chambers (AKA, my office) they were floored at the first one I brought in. They weren’t traditional houses like they expected, and as our competition name suggested. We were all blown away.”
One of our judges, John Koch, agreed: “Everyone seemed into it, and seemed to be enjoying themselves. It was an old time Christmas theme brought forward into a TS time and space. We had no idea that we would be looking at anything other than a bunch of Hansel and Gretl-looking houses.”
Indeed, our first place winner blew it out of the water. Judged on three scoring categories— theme, creativity, and execution- Godzilla and Mothra destroyed the competition.
Godzilla and Mothra: a smashing success for our first place team.
In a reportedly tight race, second and third place went to the Cajun Christmas Cabin and… what we’ll call the “gingerbread drug den,” respectively.
Cajun Christmas Cabin snagged a second place trophy from the blue bayou.
One of the more tame views of the “gingerbread drug den,” with all apologies to the folks at Breaking Bad.
While comic themes clearly had the upper hand, we also had some more traditional houses, including a recreation of the St. Louis Cathedral, as well as a take on the Baba Yaga hut of legend. Check out our Facebook page for a gallery of the impressive days’ work done by our Squids, and Happy Holidays from the TurboSquid office!
Three cheers to Deanna Sparkman and Susan de la Houssaye for an amazing event, and to everyone who worked and participated in it!