First of all relax. You can serve the same meal, so I'm not sure what you are freaked out about.

Do you have enough seating inside? If not, then serve buffet style from the kitchen.

I hope you have air conditioning, because that will certainly help.

I have had quite a few weather situations. I would never cancel a holiday gathering due to rain.

The food will be just as good eaten inside or out, and it's meant to be casual, so keep it such. You just want to be sure to have strong paper or plastic plates as you want to keep spills to a minimum.

At our family picnics there was always a group who played cards anyway...penny ante poker or may I or whatever. Or maybe scrabble. Or a jigsaw puzzle ... depending on the crowd.

There's also a game called "heads up" which is an iphone app....sort of like charades that looks like fun as anyone can join in.

But my family gatherings, people seem to be happy just to chat. Or you can bring or have others bring some old family photo albums which are always fun to go through.

People sit around and talk at ours. If it's too wet to go outside, you could have a pg movie or family videos.

Our family likes to visit when we are together. If there is a big game on TV, we turn it on for the ones who want it, or even record the game so that they can watch it later.

If you don't have AC, strategically placed fans are awesome! They are pretty cheap, especially with all the sales this weekend. Sweat and Fans = Cool!

If it is too rainy to grill burgers, order pizza, have a banana split ice cream buffet, have a movie on hand in case that seems like a good idea but mostly talk and enjoy each other's company.

At our last gathering, I had my computer going with the live eagle cam on and a bunch of the people and esp the children had fun checking in on how the birds were doing.

Live eagle cam DC

Thank you everybody for all of the great ideas. I appreciate them all!

We have a few of the pop up canopy things they are perfect for situations where there's a little rain but you want to be outside. Only takes a few minutes to pop it up and throw a few lawn chairs around. Put a big tub of ice loaded with drinks in it for a refreshing drink and water bottles. Beer too if you have drinkers. Have iced down watermelons to slice up. The canopies are not very expensive and they have them everywhere. Big Lots, Walmart, Academy sports etc.

Lots of good choices