title: Christmas Stories From The Crones Castle
author:  Patsy Stanley 
description: I originally wrote these stories as plays to be done in enactment therapy, and they work well as simple to do, delightful Christmas plays.<div></div>
zlib_text: # SEVEN
  
  
  CHRISTMAS PASSED WITH all the trappings of tradition, the decorations, the
  dances, the rich food and the heavy wine, the flirtations, the presents, the
  bells and songs, and even, on occasion, the prayers.
  
  
  For that week Charlotte did not go to Callander Square but devoted herself to
  her own home. Last year she had been too new to marriage to feel the warm,
  easy comfort of complete friendship, of belonging without anxiety or the
  urgency to please. Now she hung the parlor with lanterns and colored chains,
  purchased a small tree and decorated it, then busied herself making toffee and
  fudge, marzipan and mints to give to carol singers, and wrapping small gifts
  for her family.
  
  
  On January second the matter of Callander Square obtruded into her life again,
  and when Pitt departed in the morning to the police station, she finished a
  rather indifferent effort at housework, and took herself back to the
  Balantynes’ residence to address her attention to learning more about the rest
  of 