Brown Bag Films celebrated Christmas in style last Friday with a Casino night at the Mansion House on Dawson St. We began the festive celebrations on Friday afternoon by popping open a bottle of champagne, pulling a few crackers and opening up our Secret Santa presents from under the office Christmas tree while listening to some festive tunes.
Here at Brown Bag we’re generally quite casual in our work attire but everyone ditched the jeans for the evening and got their glamour on! After a year of hard work we were all looking forward to a night of letting our hair down and gambling too, even if it wasn’t with real money.
We were joined on the night by Kathleen O’Rourke – writer and voice of Granny O’Grimm and Mr. Richie Baneham, animation director on Avatar, who had arrived home in Ireland for Christmas.
After a couple of drinks and hot food to warm us up on one of the coldest nights of the year, we got straight into the fun and games. Lady luck wasn’t with me until I tried to get rid of my chips and then I started winning. Our in-house dancer Richie Keane got the troops at his table so motivated to win that they soon joined him dancing on the chairs, waving their arms along to YMCA. Their efforts were rewarded with receiving one million in chips each!
By the end of the evening four out of 5 people in the blackjack final were from Brown Bag. Darren and Sean offered their skills as tutor to Anne, Astrid, Barry and Jean. This didn’t work out so well for poor Astrid, who on taking Sean’s advice risked it all and lost everything in the first of 2 rounds.
As Cathal and Lisa made a quick getaway, the rest of us headed over to Grafton St. and blagged our way into Lillie’s bordello for a nightcap and a boogie, before heading out into the night in search of the one thing everyone wants for Christmas – a taxi home.
