New Years Eve at Times Square!

For New Years Eve we actually were able to go to Times Square and see the ball drop! My friend Courtney who went to UNL with me now lives in Connecticut, real close to NYC and she works for a special event company and had special passes for anyone that wanted to help out at Times Square and pass out Pepsi scarves and beach balls. So we decided to sign up and see Times Square up close without having to stand outside all day. It was awesome! All four us (Cari, Andrew, Philip and me) all went to dinner first at a sushi restaurant close to our place and then we came home and changed into our cold weather gear and headed to this hotel close to Times Square where our group was getting ready and grabbing all of their Pepsi stuff to hand out to the crowds. Here's some photos of all Pepsi'd out! The photo on the left is of me and my friend Courtney who hooked us up with the special passes.

So once we had all of our Pepsi stuff, we headed down to Times Square and they escorted us to this building where we had to wait until they were ready for us. We were actually in the building that is right under the ball! At first we were sad we were missing out on all the fun outside, but then once we went outside we were glad we had been inside for so long because it was absolutely FREEZING out! Luckily we didn't get outside until 11pm so were we SO LUCKY! I couldn't believe how cold it was and most people had been outside for hours (we asked this one group of girls and they had been there for 16 hours - since 8am - crazy!) So once we got outside into the "special area" where the celebrities walked through and the media, police, etc. (On the left is a photo of Ryan Seacrest!) we started handing out all of our Pepsi scarves. Everyone loved them. Then, at 11:50pm we had to throw out all these beach balls during the Pepsi commercial. It was pretty cool. Balls were everyone and it was suppose to represent "carbonation".

Once we were done with our Pepsi gig, we just walked to the crowd in front of the ball and counted down with everyone and rang in the New Year with a million other people! HAPPY NEW YEAR! There was all this confetti and it was so exciting. I loved it! I want to do it again but I don't know if we'll ever have such a great opportunity as we did this year. It was so cool. Everyone says you should do Times Square once in your life - and I agree - it really was awesome! Here's a phoot of Cari and Andrew in front of the ball on the left. And below is a video from the night.

After Times Square, we walked to Grand Central to warm up because we were so cold and on walk we saw Taylor Swift who actually waved at Philip and Lionel Richie. We really added to our celebrity sightings that night!

So once we got to Grand Central we headed to the Lower East Side and ended up at this bar called Puck Fair. It was fun and we found a great table right next to the bar so we could order food and drinks real easily. We stayed there the rest of the night and got home around 4am! It was definitely a good New Years! Philip had such a great time he didn't even notice this balloon that was stuck to his coat. :) See photo below...

I hope you all had a very HAPPY NEW YEAR too!