By: Drew Bearfield

New Year’s Eve is when we make the move from 2016 to 2017, bringing in a new year. All across the world, people are looking for something fun to do and hoping to have a memorable night.  

It is tradition for some people stay up to watch the ball drop.  According to http://www.today.com, in New York City they drop a ball made of 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles in Times Square, right in the center of Manhattan. The ball is 12 feet in diameter; it weighs a whole whopping 11,875 pounds. The roughly 32,256 LED lights keep the ball glowing. Many people go to witness the ball drop in Times Square, but most people in Warren County just stay home and watch the ball drop on TV.

For New Year’s Eve and Christmas, my family also has their own traditions.  I usually go to my great-grandmother’s house for a couple of days. The first day we go to her house for Christmas Eve and most of my family is there to celebrate Christmas Eve together. First, we usually eat for a couple of hours. When we get done eating, we open all the presents from other family members. You get to see all the little kids smiles and happiness, which is a great way to spend the holiday.

The second day, we usually wake up at home in our beds, and it is Christmas morning. I wake up to my brothers shaking me to get up so both of them can open presents, because that’s my Mom’s rule: everybody has to be awake to open presents. A couple days go by and we go back to my great grandmother’s house for New Year’s Eve and my family is there and we celebrate with each other with the New Year coming up in a couple hours. Then we wait for the ball to drop and we all eat the left over from Christmas Eve. After the ball drops, we leave and then enjoy the couple days left before we go back to school.

The Squire started a Twitter poll to find out more about how Eisenhower students spend their New Year’s holiday. According to the results, most students hang out with friends. The second highest number of people polled shared that they choose to stay home and celebrate a quiet New Years. Based on the results, not a lot of people go see family, and even fewer people watch the ball drop in Time Square. While everyone might be doing something different to ring in the New Year, spend some time thinking and appreciate the possibilities that are to come.