RAND's First Couple Grace Davies and Stephen Varone pose with another First Couple at Madame Tussauds.
It started off as a night at the (wax) museum. RAND's annual holiday party began with a scavenger hunt at Madame Tussauds in Times Square where coworkers, family members, and friends made their way through the museum's five floors of life-like (some eerily so) wax celebrities and notable figures.
Scenes from the scavenger hunt included posing with the Spice Girls, hamming it up with Mad Men's Jon Hamm, making duck faces with Daniel Craig's 007, taking solemn selfies with the Dalai Lama, chilling with Jimi Hendrix, and checking out the color of Einstein's socks. (They're brown.)
The 150-person party then continued at Carmine's, which serves family-sized Italian dishes that contain the equivalent of 400,000 helpings (a rough, but subjectively accurate estimate) in each platter. Although everyone had carbo-loaded enough to run a marathon after dinner, we instead chose to dance if off. (A conga line and the limbo were sighted.)
Singer Sal Manzo, better known as the "Songster," provided musical entertainment throughout dinner, and RAND's very own Jared Goldstein performed a few selections from his operatic repertoire to everyone's great delight.
Mangia Mia! It was big food and big fun for RANDies celebrating family style at Carmine's.
This was my very first RAND holiday party, and I won't forget all the fun we had, the hard work Operations Manager Joanna Kuther and Human Resources Associate Catherine Carr put in to ensure everyone had a special time, and RAND President Stephen Varone's heart-warming speech congratulating everyone on a great year and welcoming all the newbies to the RAND family. Just like the dishes, it was a family-style holiday celebration that night at Carmine's.
Happy holidays and best wishes for a happy new year, RAND family and extended family members!
For more photos of RAND's 2015 holiday party, visit our album on our Facebook page.
Jennifer Wu is RAND's Marketing Associate and official party photographer.
