Mix em' up!

Mixer

noun

1 a kitchen mixer: blender, food processor, beater; churn.

2 he attended a mixer: gathering, social, function, get-together, meet-and-greet

A mixer is basically a party, you just plan it a little differently because it's for a bunch of people who don't know each other very well. I know, worth the wait right? So first things first, you need an activity. For me, it's pop pong (like beer pong only less illegal and more competitive). It's great because, assuming you have a table (preferably a ping pong table), all you need is a bag of plastic cups ($2.50), Ping-Pong balls ($1.50) and a few liters of your favorite beverage (approximately $3 ea. the more suger, the better).

How to play Pop Pong:

-----Set up 10 cups at either end of the table in pyramids like this

                      O O O O

                        O O O

                          O O

                            O              the pyramids should point at each other.

-----You can play one on one or in pairs. The teams stand at either ends of the table and take turns trying to throw their Ping Pong balls into the other team's cups.

-----You can either throw it straight in OR bounce it.

-----If you make it in one of the cups, the other team has to drink that cup and take it off the table.

-----If you bounce it, the other team can swat it away. If the other team swats it away without it bouncing, the team who threw the ball gets to pick any cup for the offending team to drink from.

-----If you bounce it and make it, the other team has to drink the cup you made it into, AND another cup of your choosing.

-----Whoever eliminates all of the other team's cups first is the winner.

-----As you eliminate more cups, you may want to re-rack. That means that you can tell the other team how to re-arrange the cups so that it's easier for you to throw into. You should decide how many re-racks each team gets before you play.

-----I've never tried to explain this in writing before so if you have questions, leave a comment below and I'll comment back.

If you're not a pop-pong kind of person, thats fine. There are plenty of fun games that get people talking. Games like Apples to Apples, Loaded Questions, Would You Rather, and The Game of Things are great, you might want to have more than one game going on at a time, depending on how many people you have. Music is a MUST, but you have to be careful to play every kind of music. Remember, we can't get to know new people if we only focus on one thing that we have in common, so make sure you diversify your activities. 

This sounds like a lot of work for just having your friends over, but a little planning goes a long way. No one has fun while they're sitting around saying "I don't know what do you want to do?"

The Do's and Don't's:

• Do let people mess with the music. One person will say "Don't change it!" and the person who changed it will say that didn't like it and BAM the conversation begins.
• Don't stress.
• Do make sure you're spending equal amounts of time with everyone.

Have fun guys!! Keep it real, Emily