Did the ball *actually* drop?

Because I'm not convinced.

Last night, we went with our good friends, Seth and Katie, and their two children, Will and Ryan to the RainForest Cafe for their annual New Year's Eve party (5:00-7:30pm, woo hoo!). There was face painting, balloons and more chocolate milk than any child needs. It was noisy and dark and the children were insane, but we all had a good time.

Needless to say, everyone came home and passed out on the couch. I woke up at 11:57 psyched that I'd woken up in time to watch the ball drop. I changed the channel to NBC (my preferred network) And then poof! I looked at the clock again and it was 12:09. Seriously - it went from 11:57pm, Monday, December 31, 2007, to 12:09am Tuesday, January 1, 2008, in the blink of an eye. It's as if 12 minutes completely disappeared. I mean, I was awake and looking forward to the countdown and ball drop and before I knew it, NBC was already onto their post New Year's activities.

So I ask you, did the ball actually drop? Or did we all lose 12 minutes?