Throwing or attending a party is one of  the best ways to relieve stress. Often there really doesn't have to be a special occasion when I have a party. I am just as likely to have a party because it is Monday as I am for a birthday or holiday.

One of our most favorite ways to have parties in my group is a game party. We have 3 basic ways that we do this.

Some of our favorite card games are 500, Pinochle. Since I do not have enough space here to include the How-to's and rules for each you can find them all at http://www.pagat.com/.

The way a card party works is simple you find 5 or 7 couples besides you and your spouse(12 or 16 people in all), 3 or 4 tables with 4 chairs each, a space large enough for this mob, a deck of cards for each table, Tally cards for each player, and pens and score pads.

Tally cards (one for each player) can be purchased or home made they do not need to be fancy. If you have never tried to host or play at a card party it would be much better to buy tally cards until you get the feel for the way they are laid out. Below is a standard 12 player rotation tally Card.

The rotation play allows everyone to play as a partner and as an opponent to every one else once during the party. Each table is played until each of the 4 players have dealt a hand. This is a round and at the end of each round the score you achieved is added to your running total. A party of 12 players usually takes up to 6 hours. At the beginning everyone contributes $.50 or a $1.00 per couple to a pot. This money is divided up between High Man and High Lady when all the games are done. The host or hostess provides a small gag gift for the booby prize which is awarded to the player with the lowest score.

Almost always we go with a covered dish for refreshments.

 This type of party is a lot less structured than a card party.

Just pick a day invite everyone ask them to bring a game (Keeping in mind lots of people) and have a blast.

My family (mom,aunts, sisters, and cousins) are all Scrabble fanatics. Since typically it is difficult to play scrabble in large groups we borrowed the card party idea made a few modifications and came up with Scrabble Party.

Ussualy there are 8 to 12 players. We play two person games in rotation until we have all played with everyone else. A running score is kept by each player and we use the prize system of the card party for awards except we have highest score and most valuable 7 letter word instead of high man and lady.

Some times it is hard to get all of us together but we do love scrabble and we are resourceful. we play at http://www.isc.ro/ on the computer together all the time. Any one interested in a game can find me here as Eskayel. Use of anagram software is frowned upon.

The key to good scrabble is knowing a lot of good words and here http://homepage.ntlworld.com/adam.bozon/scrabblelists.htm is a really great source if you do not own an "Official Scrabble Dictionary".

Again No matter what type of party you like remember "Party well, Party Hard, and Party often.