Entertaining New Friends

You should also use flavortunes.com. Its an online invitation site similar to evite.com BUT now your guest can requests songs they want to hear at the event. its so fun and easy. And guests love it becuase they get to be involved planning the party. And it's cool because then as a host, you get a jukebox that you can play at the party. I just used it and it worked so well. all my friends were so excited to hear great music - of course they are going to love it because they are the ones who set the jukebox. =)

A couple of fun ideas are these: 1. Have a fondue party with all kinds of different things to dip. You can make all types of fondue's, but if you aren't planning a full meal, just have a couple of chocolate fondue's. There are good recipes at www.chocolate-candy-mall.com/chocolate-fondue.html 2. How about a candy making party? Get some inexpensive chocolate molds in particular themes. Also pick up some colored chocolate melts along with the regular chocolate and a package of those little paint brushes. Use the colored melts to paint in the details of the molds before filling with regular chocolate. This is easy, fun, and brings out the laughter. Instructions, etc., also at www.chocolate-candy-mall.com 3. Have a specific type of food night. Example: soup night, salad night, chili night, etc. Have everyone bring a pot of their favorite (or bowl in the case of salad) and you provide the bread. I know these are still eat, drink, and be merry, but... ...with a twist.

Totally. Having a big garden has its pay offs, I would have BBQ's all the time!

A huge, yet disastrous yard came into my hands when I moved into my new place. Friends kept telling me to do something to the yard, fix it up they demanded. So my retaliation was to host a "Fix My Yard!" party. I invited about 12 people over and told them I would provide drinks and food if they provided any gardening tools and a plant. We started in the afternoon and had a BBQ lunch break. We had loads of fun and now I have a lovely garden. I suggest this to any one with a garden or yard that they need help working on. Pay your friends in booze and BBQ, they’ll love it.

I have two words for you: Catch Phrase. Grab your jacket and head to the local to buy this game. It's obnoxiously fun. Everyone I know who has it is addicted. I'm addicted! Best served with alcohol.

There's a great party game where everyone, upon arrival, gets a name of a famous (real or fictional, dead or alive) person pinned to their back. Throughout the evening people are encouraged to speak to each other according to these identities (without giving names away), and the wearers of the names have to guess who they are. It's even more fun if incentives are used, such as party favors, prizes, and such. A variation could be, if you guess correctly, you get a new one, and the person who successfully guessed the most names in the course of the evening wins.

This is more of the same eat, drink and be merry, but it was really fun. I just hosted a blind wine tasting where everyone brought a bottle of Syrah from their favorite region. I had a few bottles of non-Syrah for pre-tasting and also a few heavy snacks (so people weren't hurling at the end). We revealed everyone's favorite and most hated wine at the end. It was a blast and easy to put together since everyone is responsible for a piece of the drinking action. We then danced til 4 am to bad 80s music (but that probably had something to do with the wine). I'm also a big fan of board game nights: Scrabble, Monopoly, Tabu, etc.