Why we rang in the New Year at 8 p.m. instead of midnight

First of all, our fellow party guests had a bedtime of 8:30 p.m. Yeah, I know, even on New Year's Eve. Second of all, I'm pretty sure neither one of them knew, or cared, that we were saying goodbye to 2008 and hello to 2009. But no problem. We figured it was the New Year somewhere. So we donned our party hats and blew our whistles. We went outside and played with poppers and banged pots and pans. Did we care that at one point, one of the party guests breached party etiquette by expressing her desire to be at someone else's party? ("I need my mom and dad...."). Nope. She quickly got into the spirit of the party she was attending, and we all had a great time. I think we'll keep them on our party list...