Most important, is how we rang it in. Whether you were among friends, in Times Square watching the ball drop, in your living room with a glass of champagne watching the ball drop, or dancing until dawn - We make a point of remembering how we welcomed the new year and celebrated making it through another one.
Usually, my New Years celebrations are pretty much the same year to year. Good food, good family, good fireworks...
I don't know what you all do as a New Years tradition, but I would be very surprised if it has anything to do with setting a scarecrow on fire in the street.
What I mean to say is, things were a little different here.
They literally set the night on fire.
We started early and had some dinner at a favorite local spot on the beach, watching the beginning of the fireworks over the water. We had ceviche, 'indio viejo' - a strange and delicious corn porridge with meat and vegetables served with plantain chips and rice, and beans with cream and fried plantains. Add a couple fresh mojitos and your have yourself a pretty good kick off to the New Years Eve celebrations.
There were rounds of fireworks being shot off in all directions every few minutes pretty much all night. Then again, that's every night. I imagined how confusing that would be to the very inebriated tourists,
"HEY ITS NEW YEARS ALREADY! HAP-PY NEW YEAR!.....HEY ITS NEW YEARS AGAIN! HAP-PY NEW YEAR!"
The whole waterfront was alive. The restaurants turned into night clubs, handed out hats, glow sticks, played music... We walked up and down the street checking out all the different events happening - there were a lot. Each place was full of flashing lights, and dancing, and each place was actually pretty fun. The streets were so full of people and music from the bars -which are all open, no walls here - fire dancers, people selling lights...You could almost just walk down the street and not actually have to go in to any particular place.
We rung in the new year on the upstairs deck of a popular spot on the water. The DJ was playing a song and before we knew it he was saying something about the new year and "4...3...2....1!"
I was caught off guard having so little notice and being under the impression it was just 11:30 like 5 minutes ago...But everyone caught on pretty quick and made noise, kissed their New Years date, and then the fireworks went off. I mean more than your average day in San Juan. In every direction, and for a long. time.
Once I remembered that they were planning on burning the scary stuffed scarecrow things, we took a walk to go find some. People in town have all been constructing scarecrow type men who sit on the porch with cigarettes, rum, and other bad habits, and at midnight, they light them on fire in the middle of the street out front. Most of them have some pyrotechnics hidden inside them somewhere, so we were told to have a safe viewing point. By the time we saw them, they were mostly burnt. The big flames were gone anyways, and there were several piles of smoldering or still burning remains of the stuffed men. 
(Before)
(After)
Its my impression that most people here have dinner late, light the man on fire, and then go out and party until 5am, but we were beat at this point. We took one last walk down the main stretch to see the scene, and came back home and sat around for a bit before we drifted off.
I always get a little sentimental about when and how I ring in the new year. I believe in that whole, "Start it off right" thing. Kind of like how people blame your bad mood on getting up on the wrong side of the bed... I was a little unsure about how this year would go. We had no plans, no friends and family to surround us, no idea what was happening, but then the new year came all at once, without any notice. We had no idea what time it was and then "4, 3, 2, 1" it happened, and we were where we were. Which actually, is pretty fitting for us right now.
"Wherever you go, there you are."
I hope everyone had a memorable and happy new year! What were you doing when the count down started? Answer in the comment box if you feel so inclined.
Happy New Year! Let's hope the world doesn't end!
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