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A strange night at the Hilton

What did you used to do on New Year's Eve when you were 7-, 8-, 9-years old? Play with dolls? Watch TV? Play video games? Have a sleep over with friends? Nothing different than any other weekend? I can't even remember what I did on New Year's Eve twenty some odd years ago. Chances are I was chilling at home, getting ready for the New Year's Day bowl games. Well, not all kids are like this, as I learned on Tuesday night at a Hilton hotel in Columbus, Ohio.

When walking inside this rather upscale hotel, I noticed a few youngsters roaming about with their parents. I didn't think much of it at first until I came back to the hotel later that night after bar- and restaurant-hopping for a couple of hours. When I ventured inside, I noticed a group of 10 to 20 young kids with their parents not far from the bar area. When asking somebody up front about it, she said that one of the kids was having a birthday party and that he/she did the same thing a year ago.

Really? During those years, I had my birthday party at a bowling alley or a fun center to play video games and spaceball. Never did it occur to me that I should reel off the following question for my folks:

"So, mom? Dad? For my birthday, do you think we could get a lot of rooms at a Hilton hotel and throw the party there? It's only $150 per room per night. There will only be twenty of us or so, so if we have two per room, that'd just be eleven rooms and $1,650. That isn't too much right? Come on, mom, dad? Please! There's a pool and everything there! Please! Please! Please!"

Later that night, as midnight struck for the new year, I heard what seemed to be lines of kids talking, laughing, running, and hollering up and down the halls. Little did I realize that when booking a room at the Hilton on New Year's Eve, it'd wind up feeling more like a daycare than a hotel.

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