How do you celebrate New Year's / Best New Year's Story

[RachelsEnglish]

Hi. Here in the United States we are nearing our New Year's Eve / New Year's Day celebrations.

Most people celebrate New Year's Even at parties at friend's houses, or out in restaurants/bars/lounges. In all cases, the TV is usually tuned to Dick Clark's New Year's Eve special, and when it gets close to midnight everyone stops what they are doing to count down as the ball drops over Times Square in New York! Sometimes people kiss right at midnight.

Last year I was working in New York at a Jazz Club over New Year's Eve, so I counted down with my coworkers, and our boss lets us toast with glasses of Champagne. When I got of work around 1:30 am, two coworkers and I walked up to Times Square. It was mostly deserted, all the people celebrating had gone home. There was confetti everywhere and still some floating around in the sky. We untied some balloons from a lamp post and watched them float to the sky. We practically had Times Square to ourselves! It was very fun and very memorable.

How do YOU usually celebrate New Year's Eve??
___________
Rachel
www.RachelsEnglish.com

[Jamie (K)]

I usually stay home on New Year's Eve, because one year I realized that I had never enjoyed the parties on that night, even though I like to go to parties at other times. A policeman has told me that in my part of town people shouldn't go outside between midnight and 1:00 on New Year's, because many people in the adjacent neighborhood shoot guns into the air at that time, and "what goes up must come down." Once in a while someone gets hit by one of the bullets several blocks away.

I lived in the Czech Republic for a few years, and once two girls invited another guy and me to their apartment to celebrate New Year's. At about 11:30, we went to one of the girls' grandmother's apartment, so that she wouldn't be alone at midnight. As the big moment came, the TV showed some politicians blabbering and then an old-fashioned clock ticking. At the stroke of midnight, everyone toasted with champagne, but suddenly we heard a loud BOOM, and all the windows shattered into the apartment. Some reveler outside had set off a bomb of some kind in the intersection, and it had destroyed all the windows surrounding the intersection.

[RachelsEnglish]

Oh my gosh! I can't believe all the windows shattered.