New Years Eve in New York City!!

So we know that the mid-end of January is not the ideal time to put up a post about what we did on New Years Eve, but bear with us - we're still getting back into the swing of things! Our New York posts will be coming for the next few weeks, but trust us - they are worth documenting!

So back to New Years Eve. We wanted to spend it in Times Square - so we would have gone Red Square to Times Square in a year. We were told we would have to get there crazy early to get in, so we showed up at 2pm. 2PM. Only 30 minutes before they completely closed off the whole area. 10 hours before midnight!

Anyway, as expected Times Square (TS) was completely rammed already. There were police and tourists everywhere, and they had closed all roads in the area. We hadn't eaten yet, so I asked if we could take food into the enclosure - to which the policeman laughed at me, and said no, so we ate a quick burger and headed in.

So began the longest wait ever! Turned out we could have brought in food, which was annoying, but also we were glad we had no food or drink - because there were no loos! If you had to go to the bathroom, you were let out, and had to leave TS - couldn't get back in!

We layed down on the floor of Times Square for over 2 hours - tried not to freeze to death in the below freezing temperatures, used 6 little hand warmers, and listened to Psy, Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepson, Train, and others warm up for their sets.

We saw Carson Daly and Angela from 'The Office', danced to Gangnam Style, got gifted awesome Nivea hats and balloons, and sang along to the artists. It was a shame we couldn't see them perform, because the stage faced the cameras and a small number of competition winners.

We did get to watch the Times Square ball rise, which was awesome - they had fireworks with it, and it was so cool to see in person what we've seen on TV all these years!

We rung in the London New Year with 5 hours down, and 5 hours to go. We feel like we aren't painting the most positive picture of NYE in TS, but honestly it was.. well, not very fun. Perhaps if we had been more prepared and had camping fold out seats and blankets like some in the enclosures who had obviously done it before, but we didn't think about it!

So after 5 hours waiting, we made the decision to head back to our apartment. We left the enclosure, and got stopped by a policeman who couldn't understand why we'd rather be anywhere else than Times Square on New Years! After explaining to him the many reasons we'd rather be cuddled up in our warm Upper West Side apartment with food, drink, and a bathroom to use, and after Sarah proclaiming to him that London does it better (oh, Sarah!) we were let go, and grabbed our first yellow taxi home, stopping for Mango Smirnoff Ice's and ordering pizza on the way.

Ohhhhh yeaaaahh

We watched the show on our big TV, cuddled and kissed in the warm, still wearing our Times Square hats - and at midnight Laura kissed her beautiful fiancee and thought about how lucky we were to be ringing in 2013 engaged, and in the (second) best city in the world. As we kissed, we saw fireworks - actually, they were real fireworks! We could see the TS fireworks from our apartment window! It was the best surprise ever.

Hahaha Sarah had TWO Smirnoffs

Times Square on New Years Eve was an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience, but we are SO glad we made the best decision for us in coming home and ringing in the new year instead with our favourite things - blankets, Diet Coke, food, and each other!!

It is definitely worth a watch though - check out our NYE in NYC video here!!

What did you do to ring in 2013?