We are family.

Today is one of only a handful of Sundays in my whole life I have not gone to church. We had a family fun day at one of the prisons I work in. It was basically an extended family visit with some activities for the children - beat the goalie, face painting etc.. It was lovely to see the children enjoying their time with their dads. I'm often struck by a lump in my throat when I see the kids greeting their dads, or indeed parting with them at the end. I wish I could have taken photos but that wouldn't have been right. I was in charge of the raffle, but don't tell my denomination who officially disapprove of raffles. It was a free raffle though, for the children only, so I don't think it's really classed as gambling which is what we're not supposed to condone.

We have a beautiful rug which I once won in a raffle. I was chaplain of a cancer care day centre at the time and a lovely lady who was terminally ill made the rug and then it was raffled. I bought a ticket, thinking my denomination would be none the wiser. I was part time and a few days later I was back in and found I'd won it. There was an absolutely enormous poster on the wall saying: "Winner of rug raffle: Rev. Anne ("Droid") and then, in case the reader hadn't noticed the "Rev", underneath it said "OUR CHAPLAIN" in huge letters. People did jokingly threaten to phone our Church central office to report me but I still have the rug, and remember Lexy, its maker, with fondness. I, mind you, am no particular fan of gambling, seeing as I do guys whose gambling addiction has led them to a prison sentence.

Anyway, the raffle went well today, the whole thing went well, and then I came home to a special "family day" of our own as Penultimate Child celebrated being nine. She is being helped by two pals here for a sleepover tonight. They have been ten pin bowling and are now watching Doctor Doolittle and eating chocolate buttons in bed. And her presents, Daisy and Pebble, two goldfish, and a Scooby Doo fish tank have arrived in the house too.