Looking back at our years together, we realized we'd never actually gone out (besides sleeping over at a friend's house) for New Years Eve and if there was ever going to be a year to do it, this would be our chance!
I'm a big advocate for not driving on such occasions (working in a trauma ICU will do that do ya), so I did my research to verify the trains would be running extra late to and from Dallas.
kpLOVE was ready to crash Big D NYE, which is Dallas' Victory Park version of the New York Times Square annual celebration. It's actually the biggest party in the central time zone and televised in multiple states.
The weather has been off and on Spring-like lately, but every time we want to participate in an outdoor event, it's apparently a requirement for the temps to plummet so low that 3-4 layers of clothing become a vital part of survival.
It's a good thing I had my disposable princess tiara and ostrich feather (Full disclosure: I just had to Google "ostrich" because I had no idea how to spell it. You don't even want to know how difficult it was for the search engine to figure out what I was trying to ask. You may think it's an easy word to spell, because you're already looking at it, but trust me, it's tricky. And then I laughed, not at myself, but at the hilarious pictures of ostrich faces staring straight at me as a result.) to help keep me warm, given my sweater was way too short.
Food trucks lined the event entrance and we took our pick, eventually agreeing on the familiar Korean truck I grew to love earlier this year. Strangely enough, I was dying for some ice cream, but the design your own ice cream sandwich truck was missing, which probably had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it was freezing outside and I'd be the only dummy placing orders.
We walked around to check everything out and eventually decided it was time to get comfortable against a barricade right smack in the middle of all the action, which is when we discovered the special powers of our beloved picnic blanket.
People did as people do, and started to follow our example as space allowed, except no one else had what we had, a blindingly bright red and yellow blanket that screamed, "WARNING! I'm HERE," to everyone in feasible distance. Actually, no one else had any blanket at all to shield their butts from the winter saturated concrete floor.
We sat there, just the two of us (three if you count Cotton), surrounded by a sea of bustling feet, for the next few hours just talking and laughing and enjoying each other's company while critiquing the performances of the night's entertainment, until 20 minutes out from the stroke of midnight.
Standing up, we found ourselves in shock and awe at just how many people had squeezed around the comfortable space cushion our magical blanket had created.
We'd sensed things were getting tight, but even still, passerbyers would tiptoe over corners to carefully avoid stepping on our nest and apologize if they got too close, then do a double take and tell us how jealous they were of our set up. 
Sure enough, as soon as we packed up the blanket, our territory disappeared along with it.
We were okay with that though; time was inching closer to the big finale.
I always kiss my hunny with a purpose, but kissing him to begin a new year requires extra special attention......
......like squooshing all the features on his face in an aggressive but sweet manner, so he knows I really mean it.
It was such an enchanted kiss, fire works started launching above our heads and everyone got to reap the benefits.
The colorful display of midsky explosions was spectacular, especially since I missed The 4th of July.
When it was time to head home, we met our only obstacle for the night. It was truly the closet I've ever been to being caught in a mob and the closet I ever hope to be. With only enough room to breathe, I would have been scared for my life had everyone been angry and violent instead of laughing and joyous. We didn't even have to walk; we were literally being pushed along in the massive assemblage of people that seemed to be neverending.
But eventually we made it out safely, to the cozy comfort of our bed, where'd we'd spend half of the next day just sleeping in and enjoying life.
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