Podcasts about new years

One more time before the year is up, we’re hosting another #AccordionBandcamp special on the occasion of #BandcampFriday coming up this week on Dec 5th, your chance to purchase accordion music from accordionic recording artists and have the lion’s share of the digital payments actually reach said artists! Happy holidays all around! If your Apple or YouTube or iHeartRadio (or plain […]

Caron Treatment Centers' Mallory Henry answers questions about holiday home visits and family gatherings, and how to better navigate during the time between Thanksgiving and New Years --- often referred to as "The Bermuda Triangle." Podcast Disclaimer The Parent-to-Parent Podcasts are provided as a service to you from other parents and do not represent professional clinical advice. The views and opinions expressed in the Parent-to-Parent Podcasts are not necessarily those of Caron or its affiliates. Nothing contained in the Parent-to-Parent Podcasts is intended to be instructional for clinical diagnosis or treatment. The information should not be considered complete, nor should it be relied on to suggest a course of treatment for a particular individual. It should not be used in place of a visit, call, consultation or the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider. You should never disregard clinical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard or read in the Parent-to-Parent Podcasts. Caron and its affiliates are neither responsible nor liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, punitive, or other damages arising out of or relating in any way to the Parent-to-Parent Podcasts, content or information contained therein or any hyperlinked website. Your sole remedy for dissatisfaction with the Parent-to-Parent Podcasts, content or information contained therein, and/or hyperlinked websites is to stop using the Parent-to-Parent Podcasts or hyperlinked websites. Please be advised that the Parent-to-Parent Podcasts may be protected by federal and international copyright or other laws, and your right to reprint, republish, modify, reproduce, or distribute the Parent-to-Parent Podcasts may be limited accordingly.

Did you know that the energy of December is the PERFECT time to deepen your experience of the Archangels? In addition to all the holy days we celebrate, there are also three specific reasons why December offers an incredible opportunity to magnify your angelic connection! In this episode, I share the three ways the Archangels are present in December and how they are already blessing you! If you truly want to deepen your experience of miracles with the Archangels, I invite you to join the Archangel Attunement & Mentoring Program! Just a few spots left… is one of them yours? Key Learnings: 1) One of the holy times of the year is Advent, the four Sundays before Christmas. Did you know that each Sunday has an Archangel associated with it? That is just one way the archangels are present with us during this holy time! 2) The second way you can experience the archangels is through the Winter Solstice. Archangel Uriel and Archaii Grace are the archangels of this seasonal portal. As you notice all the lights, for Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza and more, recognize the archangel of LIGHT behind all these manifestations! 3) Finally, we have New Years! Every year has its own angel, and this year is a special opportunity to start a new nine-year cycle. Beginning on Dec 11th, the feast day of Our Lady, Queen of the Angels, I am offering a very special Archangel Attunement & Mentoring Program! This program is limited to just ten people and will support you in laying the new foundation for your life for the next nine years! You can register at https://francesfayden.com/archangels/ "December is an easy time to connect with the angels. Their presence is everywhere!" Click here to register for the Archangel Attunement & Mentoring Program Looking for a coach to help you realize your dreams? Click here to schedule a Miracle Meeting with me If you love the image on the wall behind me of Mother Mary Blessing the World, you can order your own museum quality copy at www.deepaliu.com  

On this episode of The AIE Podcast… We have floor tanking and other WoW noobs… um, news Happy Lifeday, AIE December, where the attendance is optional and the fun is mandatory LOTRO brings YULE Kingdoms of Harad And, join us for our last show of the year All that and more coming up right now… Podcast Audio Raw Video http://youtu.be/TZ8A0NVJjUM Open Welcome to episode #440 of the podcast celebrating you, the Alea Iacta Est gaming community, the die has been podcast. This is Tetsemi: To my left is Mewkow: – (catch phrase here). And to my right is Mkallah: (hey guys, there is leftover caramel apple pie in the guild kitchen). This week, we have a wrap up of what is going on for December in AIE and gaming in general. Ok, we'll be digging into what we have been up to shortly, but first, let's cover this week's news… AIE News Community Mandatory Fun Nights Where the fun is mandatory but the attendance is not. Sunday – Destiny 2 8:30 pm Eastern Monday – GW2 9:30 pm Eastern Monday – STO 10:00 pm Eastern Tuesday – SWTOR 9:00 pm Eastern Wednesday – HFO Mythic+ Mayhem (WoW) 8:00 pm Eastern Friday – ESO 9:00 pm Eastern Saturday – LotRO 8:30 pm Eastern Saturday – FFXIV (Maps) 9:30 pm Eastern Saturday – Noob Raid (WoW) 11:00 pm Eastern Streaming and Guild Podcast News We have a ton of AIE member podcasts! Want to know where to find them? Look no further than here- New Overlords Podcast (Max and Sema) https://www.newoverlords.com Boards and Swords (Chris and Philip) https://boardsandswords.com/blog?category=Boards%20%26%20Swords Dr. Gameology ( Dr. Daniel Kaufmann ) https://drgameology.com/ STO – Fleet Action Report (Grebog and Nikodas) https://www.youtube.com/@fleetactionreport A Podcast Reborn: A FFXIV Community Podcast (Brandon aka Old Man Franks, Meagan, and Rho) – NSFL https://www.bonusroll.gg/directory/a-podcast-reborn/ WoW Noob Raid is on winter break until January 3, 2026 so Dankinia can get a bit of relief from the horrible jokes the group likes to torment her with. During 2025, Dankinia demonstrated her floor tanking abilities 172 times. While she is out, Celindre will be leading Noob Raid – After Dark during the normal 11pm EST time slot each Saturday. In WoW, Midnight – the next expansion – has a release date of March 2nd with the pre-patch release on Jan 13. Anyone with an Epic Edition pre-order will have early access – expected Feb 27 according to WoWHead. Players with early access will also be able to use the new Player Housing feature as of Dec 2. This will be a bit complicated for AIE and our co-guilds, which are one of several ways to join “neighborhoods” for player housing. Every player’s Warband gets two houses – one Horde and one Alliance, but any alt can access either home. There will be open neighborhoods that are server wide, and Guilds can create private neighborhoods open to anyone in that guild. Groups of friends (such as Raid Teams) can also create charters for their own neighborhoods. We will have neighb orhoods for all the co-guilds (probably) but haven’t assigned which officer will be assigned to which yet. Currently, in addition to the Legion Remix event (speed leveling/transmog/mounts etc), the WoW Anniversary is active in Retail WoW, with a rep & xp boost. Visiting the Anniversary Celebration at the Caverns of Time will provide an additional buff. Rep is good – because it’s one of the ways to obtain decor for Player Housing. SWTOR SWTOR will see a holiday release of update 7.8 entitled “Pursuit of Ruin”. It will include a new story chapter, a new type of Dynamic Encounter, and a new stronghold (player housing). That’s not to mention Life Day festivities, with the snow balls and the wookiee hugging. Also, for the first year ever, we will be trying out a new guild event during the evenings between Christmas and New Years. Stay tuned to discord for more info on that! ESO MFN in ESO generally takes the month of December off, but expect to find a couple of people hanging out at the normal time on Friday nights though the holidays. Attendance will be sporadic but feel free to reach out if anyone would like company while running the holiday events in game. FFXIV Patch 7.4 comes December 16th. Main Scenario – Into the Mist Raid Dungeon – The Arcadion: Heavyweight Division Variant Dungeon – The Merchant’s Tale New Dungeon – Mistwake New Trial – Hell on Rails New Unreal Trial – Tsukuyomi’s Pain (Unreal) New Frontline Campaign – Worqor Chirteh Weapon Enhancement Quests – Phantom Weapons Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures Manderville Gold Saucer GATE – Air Force One (The Cieldalaes) Cosmic Exploration: Oizys and Tool Enhancement Quests – Cosmic Tools Strategy Board – Raid explanations but better Glamour Update – Unlocked all types! New Theme Settings – Clear Green and Clear White Mac support (Ventura ends Jan 27, Tahoe now supported) Save 50% on Collector's Edition Digital Upgrades Until December 7 New ridiculous hotpot mount (It flies) And irregular tomestones are active now until 7.4 is live. Fanfest is happening where Blizzcon is normally, April 24/25th. Cookbook #2 is out! LOTRO New expansion “Kingdoms of Harad” as of right now is scheduled to be released on December 3rd. The instance cluster for the expansion is expected to be delayed, which means this gives a chance to level up to the new level cap and get a group together and look at it as a kinship. Also looking forward to the Yule Festival that starts on December 11th. Join us as we look to have fun in Frostbluff as well as protecting it in “The Battle of Frostbluff”. STO Yes, it’s true, Cryptic studios has once again been sold. However, this is not a time for doom and gloom. The new owners have no intentions of sunsetting STO. In fact, STO has simply returned to its original owners who want to see the game succeed. There are ongoing sales in both the Zen Store and Mudd’s Market. Some of these are as high as 50% off! Lifetime Subscriptions are 33% off until Dec 14th Q’s Winter Wonderland will be returning on Dec 9th. While we don’t have any specific details on what the rewards will be this year, it’s sure to be something you don’t want to miss! And with that, let's get to what we have been doing in and out of the game! And, Mkallah has a question for everyone! GAME NEWS Okay, friends! What geeky thing are you planning to give for the holidays, and are there any geeky gifts you hope to receive? CLOSE And that's our show for tonight. While the chatroom begins suggesting show titles, we want to thank us, for joining us. If you have a question or comment about our show, you can email us at podcast@aie-guild.org You can find us on the AIE Discord and BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/aiepodcast.bsky.social. We record live with video once a month on Sunday at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific. You can join the chatroom and play along with us on our website at https://aie-guild.org/podcast-live-stream/ and look for the link to our discord server at https://aie-guild.org. And for past episodes, you can see them on our Youtube channel, https://www.youtube.com/c/TheAIEPodcast ! Our theme was composed by the amazing Andrew Allen, follow him at @keyswithsoul! And now it's time to play all of the great AIE member segments we received this week, including… We will see you all in January of 2026!. So until then, AIE… – This is Tetsemi – This is Mewkow – This is Mkallah And this has been… The AIE Podcast.

In this episode, I'm diving into how to map out your own $10K plan before the end of the year, what to prioritize right now, and how to make aligned moves that create quick momentum. A few items in today's episode include: • Quick mindset shifts that help you create results fast • Journal prompts to uncover what's been holding you back • A behind-the-scenes look at my own end-of-year sales plan • Simple ways to stack cash using offers you already have • How to use pre-selling, group offers, and passive products to hit your goal • Practical ideas for fast cash injections (that don't require burnout) • Why small, consistent action beats waiting for the "perfect" moment FREEBIES:  4 Step Training to Start & Scale Your Online Coaching Business: https://melissalincoaching.lpages.co/4-steps-to-starting-a-successful-coaching-business  Quiz: Your Next Business Strategy: https://www.themelissalin.com/quiz WORK WITH MELISSA: Are you ready to take your online coaching business to the NEXT level? Have you been wanting to start coaching, finally start making a full time income doing what you love? The Fierce Business Academy might be the right fit for you! Head to the link below for more details and to hop on the waitlist! The Fierce Business Academy: https://www.themelissalin.com/academy  The 6 Figure Fierce Business Mastermind: https://www.themelissalin.com/mastermind  The Caption Capsule https://www.themelissalin.com/captioncapsule Create Your Program that Sells in 3 Easy Steps (free guide) https://melissalincoaching.lpages.co/2024-create-your-program-that-sells   Promo Code: PODCAST to save $$$ on The Caption Capsule!   Find me on social media for more daily content!  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_melissalin/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melissa.lin.180410 Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fiercebusinessbabes/ Fierce Business Academy: https://www.themelissalin.com/academy

2FA continued, Win 11 data Transfer, Proton Mail in my New Years resolution!, Transunion Fraud Alert should I pay for monitoring? My External Drive is Full, Upgraded my phone and I can't get in my mail, new Dell for only $299? Copper Line? Webroot install,

Holidays With Cousin Liz: Part 2. Liz has a present for Chris. Based on a post by storyteller 19. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. We watched TV together for an hour, mostly in silence, which was rare for Liz, who loved to talk during TV and movies. Nearly the whole time, I was hard, but as turned on as I was by having Liz close again, I also didn't want to try and force things by starting something with her prematurely. It felt right to be holding Liz, and I didn't want to rush things. When it was nearly ten, Liz turned off the TV. She reached up and grabbed at my face and gently caressed it. I looked down at her, and we looked into each other's eyes. Her face was lit by the warm glow of the fireplace. She looked so beautiful. I leaned in and we kissed each other, slowly and sensually. This seemed so different from how she was last night, but not better or worse. Last night, we acted like we satisfied a hunger after starving, but on that second night together, we started out slower and more sweetly. We sat on the couch, making out for nearly a half-hour. Liz broke the kiss, and we looked into each other's eyes in the dimly lit room. Liz stood up and grabbed the fireplace poker. she stirred the remnant pieces apart and the fire transformed to a red glow. She adjusted the damper to a slight ventilation and put the tool away. Turning to me, she smiled, then grabbed my hand. I got up and then she led me into her bedroom. Liz closed the door and locked it. She went back to kissing me, pressing me against the wall. Once we were behind closed doors, she continued our liplock while she swiftly unbuckled, unsnapped, and unzipped my jeans. Swiftly she reached down into my bozers and quickly found my straining erection, and started jerking me off. I kissed down Liz's neck, sucking hard on it and making her moan. I kissed down her collarbone and the top of her chest, pulling at her Aerosmith T-shirt to kiss more of her chest. Liz pulled off her shirt, and I kissed her cleavage. She swiftly unhooked her bra and shrugged it off so that I didn't even have to pause on my way down to her nipples. I licked around her areola and then flicked my tongue across one of her nipples. As she started to moan, I latched onto her tit and began to suck on it, causing her to moan even louder. Liz ran her free hand through my hair. I took nearly all of a tit into my mouth while lapping against it with my tongue and then sucked on it, pulling on her sensitive nipples. I switched back and forth between each of her tits. Liz pulled her hand out of my pants and slipped them down further. Once they were loose, she pulled me back up to kiss her. She flicked her tongue across my lip, and then I met her tongue with mine, and we started to french kiss. Liz pulled my college sweatshirt shirt up and over my head. Once my shirt was on the floor, she sucked and nibbled my lip, and then started to kiss down my neck, rougher than she was last night. I was afraid that she was intentionally trying to leave me a hickey from how hard she was sucking on my neck. Even though it would be so stupid, I wanted some physical mark to prove to myself that this was happening with my beautiful cousin a second night in a row. Liz kissed her way down my chest. When she got down to my stomach, she pulled my pants the rest of the way down, along with my boxers. My rock-hard cock sprung up, nearly smacking Liz on the mouth as she dropped down to her knees. I slipped my feet out of my pants and kicked them away. Liz grabbed my pants and kicked them against the crack in the door, hiding that the lamp light was on. She wrapped her hand around my rigid phallus and held it at its base. Her other hand cupped under my ball-sack and fondled the two boulders within. I shivered in pleasure when Liz looked up at me with those beautiful eyes of hers and kissed the tip of my cock. She seemed to make out with it as she kissed, licked, and sucked on the top of my cock. Everything she did felt great, and being able to better see her doing it, made it feel even better. She skilfully rubbed her tongue along the sensitive frenulum while her lips locked tightly, to hold my glans ridge captive to her lustful intents. Then she leaned down and pressed her tongue onto my ball sack, licking against my balls. I hadn't been expecting her to do that, and I couldn't help but moan. Liz took one of my balls into her mouth and sucked on it. It made me feel vulnerable to her passions, but it also felt so good that it almost hurt. Liz knew just the right amount of pressure to use. She stroked me in long slow strokes as she sucked on my balls, first one, then the other, and then both at the same time. Most girls I had been with usually ignored my balls if they even gave me a blowjob, so I wasn't used to having so much time spent on them. After sucking on my balls for a few minutes, Liz put her lips back onto my cock, only this time she started to take me all the way into her mouth. In one quick motion, she took my entire length into her mouth. I moaned as she took me effortlessly into her throat. Liz held there for a minute and then slowly pulled back off my cock to catch her breath. My entire cock was coated in her saliva. Liz took a couple of breaths and then took me back into her mouth. She started to blow me quickly, her lips sliding up and down my cock effortlessly; her tongue rubbing me in a firm swallowing motion, over and over. Liz would alternate from looking down at what she was working on; and looking up at me while she blew me. When she looked me in the eyes, it turned me on so much, but it also seemed oddly intimate, and I felt slightly vulnerable as we looked at one another. After blowing me for a couple of minutes, Liz took me back all the way into her throat and held my cock there again. While I was deep inside of her, she rapidly stroked at the underside of my cock with her tongue. She kept me inside of her mouth for a minute and a half and then pulled back from my cock with a gasp. I thought she would go back to blowing me, but instead, Liz stood up, grabbed my cock, and walked towards the bed. Liz undid her pants with her other hand, and dropped them to the floor as she walked. She lay down on her back and pulled me on top of her, kissing me deeply, I straddled over her, our naked bodies pressed against each other. She reached down between us, grasped my cock, and started to rub it against her cunt lips. I froze up at the warmth and softness of her cunt. Liz nestled my cock between her cunt lips. "I want you inside of me," Liz breathed in between kisses as she started to move so that her cunt rubbed against the tip of my cock. "I want you, too," I said and then, in a moment of honesty, added, "I have wanted you for so long." "I know. Why do you think I have teased you so much all these years?" Liz said, raising her lips so that the head of my cock slipped ever so slightly more inside of her. "To annoy me?" I asked. "That's part of it." Liz laughed. "But the other reason is that I have wanted you too," Liz said. I had one last moment of doubt if I should do this or not. Liz nibbled my earlobe. "I want you to fuck me." There was so much desire in Liz's voice. I didn't know what to say to that, but I knew what I could do in response. Going All The Way. I inched forward to both enjoy this moment and make it easy in case Liz decided to change her mind. She kept on kissing me, so I continued to press forward. I slowly worked my way inside of her. She was tight and incredibly wet. It was hard not to just thrust all the way inside of her. Being inside of Liz felt so good for so many reasons. When I bottomed out inside of her, she let out a little gasp, her body arching in pleasure at the contact of me deep inside of her. I froze in place for a moment to take in the sensation of her cunt wrapped around my cock. After getting used to the fantastic feeling of her cunt I pulled nearly all the way out and then thrust back into her quickly. Liz let out a satisfied moan when she took me fully inside of her. I tried to start off slow, but Liz humped up against me, meeting my downward thrusts. It felt too good for us to take it slow, and before long, we were fucking quickly. She held onto my shoulders, holding her body up off the bed to give her better space to thrust back up against me, or she clenched at my ass, pulling me in deeper with each thrust. Fucking Liz felt so right. It seemed like we instantly knew what the other one was going to do before they did it. Every thrust was timed perfectly to ensure the highest amount of pleasure between us. It didn't take me long to work up a sweat, my body feeling both hot and cold. I was starting to get a little out of breath. If we kept up at this pace, I wouldn't last for as long. I was glad for the release from the previous night, without which I would have come instantly when I first entered her. Liz stopped humping up against me and pressed her hand against my chest. I got off her, and she pushed me down onto my back and straddled me. She held my erection in place just at the entrance of her cunt, and then she lowered herself, taking my entire cock in one quick motion. Her cunt felt even better in this position. Liz leaned down and kissed me as she started to rock her ass up and down, working my cock against the top of her snatch as she rode my cock. I laid there for a couple of minutes, enjoying the feel of Liz perfectly riding my cock. I grabbed her perfect ass and could feel her muscles tighten and loosen as she humped me. I rocked my hips in time with her. Before long, we worked our way back to the quick pace we had built up to before. Liz started to moan more and took shallow breaths as we continued to fuck. It felt good, but it was too good; I could feel each stroke bringing me closer to an orgasm. I didn't want to cum before Liz got off. There was no guarantee that anything would happen again between us. If we were going to break this taboo together, I wanted to make sure to make this the best sex possible. Without breaking the rhythm of riding my cock she pushed on my chest and straightened up so that she was straddling my cock. Immediately her cunt felt even tighter around my cock as she continued to ride me. We both moaned at the same time. Liz pulled up so that just the tip of my cock was inside of her, and then she slammed down, taking it all in at once before pulling right back up and doing it again. I grabbed at her hips and used them to help me better slide in and out of her. Every few strokes, when Liz would take me all the way inside of her, she wouldn't pull back off immediately; instead, she would do a little grinding against me so that my cock pressed even more against her cunt walls. After a few times of doing that, Liz added that grinding motion as she went up and down on my cock, making it feel even better with each stroke. I loved the way her tits bounced as she rode up and down on my cock, and the way her face would contort in pleasure when I timed a thrust perfectly or hit her in a new sensitive spot. I was getting too close to my orgasm, but Liz seemed to be breathing heavier. She started to rub at her clit while supporting herself by leaning back onto the bed with the other hand, so I hoped that she was close enough to cum before me. It gave me a better view of my cock disappearing in and out of her tight cunt with her leaning back. My cock was soaked in her juices and made me slide in and out of her with ease. She started to rock back and forth on my cock, and her fingers rubbed furiously against her clit. Liz's moans got so loud that I was afraid that we would wake up our family, but at this point, I was too far along to do anything to stop. "Awe Chris, that's it, fuck me harder," Liz said. I held onto her hips tighter and started to fuck her even harder. "Yes, yes, yes, fuck me," Liz moaned. I knew that if we kept up like this, our family would hear. I sat up and pulled Liz off me. "Why?" She asked in a huff. I pushed her down on all fours, moved around behind her, put my hands on her hips, and then entered her fully from behind in rough thrust. Liz let out a pleasure-filled, "Oh," as I bottomed out inside of her. Liz arched her ass up against me and pressed her face down onto the bed. I had dreamed about taking Liz from behind for so long, and now that I was close to cumming I made sure to enjoy my fantasy come to life. Liz started to hump back against me. I could hear her moaning loudly into the bedding. I was surprised by how much her muffled moans turned me on. I felt her place her hand back onto her clit, and she started to rub it again. I could hear Liz's muffled moans get even louder, and then she stopped humping against my cock. She pressed her cunt back against me, taking my cock inside of her and then rocking randomly against it as her orgasm hit. As she came, I stopped holding back. I thrust into her a few more times, and with a grunt, I started to cum inside her. I held onto Liz's hips to steady myself as my body went numb with pleasure as I shot my loads inside of her as we came together. Liz's random humps slowed down as her orgasm passed, and she slowly rode my cock. When she finally stopped, I pulled out of her and laid on the bed beside her, catching my breath. Liz stayed like that for a moment with her ass up in the air, and then she laid on her side facing me. We scooted towards each other and wrapped our arms around each other. We lay like that for some time. "That was;" I started to say but didn't know the words for it. Liz leaned forward and kissed me sweetly. "I know," she said. I lay there not believing what finally happened when suddenly a thought interrupted my bliss, and I nearly jumped out of bed. Liz placed one of my hands between her tits and cradled it there with her hands as I wrapped my other hand around her. Her heart was beating so fast, just like mine. "What?" Liz asked. "I came in you, I shouldn't have done that, if you get," Liz put a hand to my chest and a finger to my lips. "Calm down. I wanted you to do that, it makes it feel even better, and I am on the pill, so you don't have to worry," Liz said. "Oh, okay, good," I said, embarrassed by my outburst, and wrapped my arms back around Liz. "Merry Christmas," Liz said. "Yeah, the best merry Christmas," I said with a smile. A few minutes later, Liz got up and grabbed the towel that I had used earlier in the day. "I will be right back. I am going to go clean up," Liz said and walked out of the room. There was a bathroom right across from the bedroom, but I still thought it was crazy that Liz walked out of the room naked. I lay there with my fingers laced behind my head as I stared up at the ceiling, a smile on my face as I rode the post-sex endorphin rush. Liz stepped back inside and gently closed the door behind her. I watched as she walked towards me and climbed into bed, trying my best to ingrain the image of her naked body into my memory. Liz climbed into bed beside me, rested her head on my chest, and pressed her body against me. I held her with one arm and played with her hair. I knew she was awake for a time, but neither one of us said anything. Before long, I heard her start to snore loudly against my chest, so loud that it woke me up when I was nearly drifting off to sleep. I smiled and lay there for a few minutes, holding her and listening to her snore. Couch Time. When I was starting to drift back off to sleep, even with her snoring, I knew that I better move out to the living room before I fell asleep with Liz again. After that night's physical exertions, I doubted that I would be able to wake up again this morning. I carefully got out of bed to not wake Liz again, but I knew that she was a deep sleeper. My theory had always been that her snores made her deaf to the world as she slept. I pulled the blanket over her and tucked her in. After I got dressed, I kissed on the top of her head. I grabbed my blanket and managed to sneak a pillow again off the bed, and I went back out to the living room. It took me some time to fall asleep even though I was exhausted. I wanted nothing more than to go back into the room and sleep beside Liz but knew that I couldn't. After some tossing and turning, I finally fell asleep. I woke up to someone kissing me. I opened my eyes, and Liz beamed down at me. "Good morning," Liz said. It was still so early that the sun hadn't fully started to rise. "Good morning," I said. I sat up, and Liz climbed onto my lap. She wrapped her arms around my neck and held me tightly as she kissed me deeply. As we kissed, my fear that last night was going to be the only time we had sex evaporated. Liz kissed me like how you kissed a lover, and while I didn't know what exactly was going to happen in the future, I knew that the last couple of nights wouldn't be stand-alone events. "My family is on their way to say goodbye, and then I am going to head back to the hotel with them to pack up my stuff." "Oh," I said. Liz lived in Portland, several states away from her family. "So, my flight leaves later today, but I was wondering, since you don't have school for a few weeks, if you wanted to come and visit me," Liz asked, looking down as she spoke. I realized that she was nervous about asking me this. My fearless cousin Liz, nervous at asking me to visit her over my Christmas break. If I hadn't just had sex with Liz the night before, then seeing her nervous about something would have been the craziest thing that happened to me this weekend. I didn't say anything for a moment, and she looked up at me expectantly. "While I mean, I did have some plans," I said. When she started to pout, I couldn't go on with it, "Yeah, I can come to visit you." "You jerk, you were just stalling," Liz said as she threw her arms around me and gave me another huge kiss. I already had morning wood from when I woke up, and I got even harder as Liz started to dry hump me. I began to play with her tits when we heard footsteps coming down the steps. She jumped off me and gave me one last peck on the lips before running back into the guest room. I smiled. I was so used to seeing Liz be sarcastic and aloof; it was odd seeing this sweet side of her. I thought about that for a bit as I laid back down to look like I was still asleep. Liz took a shower first. When she emerged, she was wearing one of my T-shirts without asking, but I loved seeing her in it, so I didn't say anything to her. By the time I took a shower, more family had shown up, including Liz's. They stayed for a couple of hours to have a small breakfast and coffee before they were going to head back to the hotel and pack up. Liz and I spent every possible moment together. Not only did she give me her phone number to make sure we kept in better touch, but she also took my phone and added her Snapchat and Instagram accounts to my phone. I rarely used the apps, and I told her so, but she told me I better use them to talk to her; otherwise, I would regret it. I knew that we would see each other again soon, but I didn't want to see her leave. I walked her and her family to their rented car when it was time for them to drive back to the hotel. Our hug goodbye lingered until we reluctantly let go. As Liz was getting in the car, she checked her purse and said how her phone wasn't in it and that she must have left it in the guest room. She said she would be right back to her family and asked me to come with her to call her phone with mine. "So, where did you last see it?" I asked Liz when we walked into the room. "Right here in my bag," Liz said, holding up her phone. "Why did you say you didn't have it?" I asked her. "So that I could give you a proper goodbye," Liz said as she hugged again, but this time also kissed me. We kissed deeply for several minutes, neither one of us wanting to break off the kiss. Our kisses started to die down, and we tried to stop, but we kept on doing small kisses. We were both left panting when we finally pulled apart. "I want you so badly again," Liz said as she rested her head on my shoulder. "Me too. I don't want to see you go." "Promise you will visit me soon." "I promise," I said, already planning on seeing her as soon as possible. We walked back out to our gathered family. "Sorry it took so long. I had my phone on silent," Liz said as we walked back up. Liz gave me one last hug and then got into the car, and they drove away. I watched them leave, feeling an odd sense of loneliness. I went back to the guest room and laid in the same bed that we had had sleepovers in together when we were kids, the same bed that last night we had sex for the first time in. I pressed the pillow that she laid on last night against my face and inhaled her scent. I lay on my back and pressed the pillow to my face, and inhaled. I felt my phone go off in my pocket. I checked it, and Liz told me that they had made it back to the hotel. She asked me what I was doing, and I told her how I was lying in bed. She called me lazy, and I asked her how I could be both lazy and an overachiever at the same time? She somehow avoided answering me, even though I was confident that I was bringing up a good point. I stayed one more day at my grandparents with my family, and then the next day, I drove home. I wasn't expecting Liz and I to text so much back and forth after we left, but we ended up being in contact the entire time they headed to the airport and after. It was nice having someone to text like that and to talk on the phone with. I was surprised when she texted me later that night and asked if I could talk on the phone. I knew that she hated talking on the phone. I usually didn't like talking on the phone much either, but I enjoyed talking with Liz. She kept on dancing around talking about what happened between us. She would make our conversations sexual first, but any time I tried to speak to her about anything, she would change the subject, teasing me yet again. Texting and talking to Liz over the next couple of days became one of my new routines and habits. Every night we talked to each other, even if it was just for a few minutes and to say goodnight, and every morning we left a good morning text message for each other. I hadn't talked to anyone like this in nearly a year. I had forgotten how easy it was to be in constant communication with someone and yet still be left wanting more of them. We maintained several conversations at once between texts, DM's, and Snapchat messages. Liz liked to send me pictures of herself in whatever cute or sexy outfit she was wearing and random pictures of her making funny faces. I had never really used Snapchat much before that, so sometimes I would be at a loss as to what to send her back, but I enjoyed her attention. Occasionally she would send me sexy pictures. She liked to do this at random times with no prompting, so a couple of times I was with friends or was in the middle of doing something in public, and I would open up a message from her, and there would be my nearly naked hot cousin. She had a knack for sending me those pictures at the most inopportune times. I would compliment her pictures and tell her how beautiful I thought she was, and she would thank me, but when I would ask to see more in another picture, she would playfully refuse or say how if I wanted to see more of her again, then I had to visit her. I was already planning to celebrate New Year's with her, so she didn't have to keep on pestering me about going to visit her, but I had to be honest. The more she teased me, the more I did want to go see her again.  Portland for New Years. The drive from my Boise college dorm to Portland, was about five hours. It went by slow thanks to a few places where the road got backed up because of accidents. I should have known that something would happen to slow me down because of how badly I wanted to see Liz. I would text her every now and then when I made a stop or those times when I was backed up in traffic. She thought it would be a good idea to spam my phone with a mix of cute and sexy near-nude photos. I told her how if she didn't stop distracting me, I would never make it in time today, and she would have to go to the New Year's party all alone. I was joking, but Liz did show a little restraint and stopped sending me so many pictures after apologizing. She was just so excited to see me again. We acted like it had been years since we last saw each other instead of only a few days. We talked on the phone for the last hour of my drive. After making another reference to our taboo insest tryst, Liz finally confronted the issue. Chris, can you cite even one religious text which forbids cousins from marital relations? I mentally scanned my memories of so many years of sunday school, Bible Quiz, and countless sermons. I came up empty on actual biblical text! "Liz!" I exclaimed. "You're right! There is no such prohibition. There are countless state statutes, and exaggerated genetic narratives of birth defects. But the Bible is not banning cousins." "Yeah," Liz added. "One of my roommates is also a recovered religious addict. She found out that Isaac and Jacob both married their cousins. And Abraham married hhis half-sister." No way!" I blurted out. "But then came Mosaic Law and some restrictions were added. Yet nothing in the old or new testament bans cousins, period!" Liz emphasized. "That's what really undermines sincere people, in their spirituality, Liz. Organized religious structures and added rules where God simply gives us principles to honor." Then the conversation transitioned to some churches teaching that birth control is sin. Then what kind of sexual expressions are sin. Liz said that some churches teach that oral arousal is sodomy, because a homosexual expresses affection in that way. "Generally, churches really get hung up about sex, and it drives away people. The people often don't have a disdain for God, just a deep disappointment with organized churches." Traffic got cogested as I got closer to Portland, and I got off the phone. I made it into the city around four in the afternoon. I was impressed with the city and found it beautiful. When I pulled into the front of Liz's apartment building, I texted her that I was there, and she met me downstairs. When she saw me, she screamed my name and ran towards me and jumped into my arms and kissed me as I started to say hello back to her. I held her tight, and we stayed like that as we got our fill of each other's touch again. "I am so glad you are here," Liz said as she grabbed my hand and led me upstairs towards her apartment. Her apartment was comfortably furnished with a mix of secondhand and new looking furniture. "How was the drive?" Liz asked. "Long," I said. "Do you want to go lay down for a bit? We have some time before I have to get ready," Liz said. Napping is Code For getting some. "Yeah, that sounds great," I said. I set my bag down when we went into her room. She had a comfortable looking twin bed in the far corner of her room. The moment we were alone inside, she started to kiss me again, only this time there was more desire in her kisses. We held each other close and explored each other's bodies. I should have known what Liz had meant by asking me if I had wanted to go to bed, but sometimes it was hard for me to acknowledge that my favorite cousin and the girl that I had been talking to so much recently were the same person. When we talked to each other, for the most part, I stopped seeing her as my relative and instead saw her as the beautiful and amazing girl she was. Liz led us over to her bed and sat me down at the edge of it. While we continued to kiss, I slipped a hand underneath her shirt. She sighed when I slipped my hand inside her bra and started to play with her nipple. Liz started to undo my fly and slipped her hand inside my pants. I moaned when her hand wrapped around my erection. I missed her touch so much. Finally being able to kiss her, touch her, and be touched back was almost too much to handle. We both had been wanting each other so badly that it seemed like neither one of us was going to try and tease the other one now that we were finally together in person. I Liz pulled her shirt off and unclipped her bra, revealing her perfect perky tits. I took her closest nipple into my mouth and sucked hard on it. "Chris," Liz sighed as I flicked my tongue across her nipple and sucked on as much of her tit as I could fit into my mouth. She pulled my cock out and started to jerk it off even better as I leaned over and began to suck on her other tit. Her hand felt so good, working its way up and down my shaft. Just about every girl I had been with in the past had been needlessly too rough or too gentle when they jerked me off. Liz seemed to know the exact amount of pressure needed to please me. Liz kissed me, biting at and sucking on my bottom lip. I broke the kiss and went back to sucking on her tits, this time nibbling on her nipple and pulling on it harder as I latched on. This made Liz moan the loudest yet, and I made sure to remember that for later. Liz pulled me away from her tits and made me lean back. She leaned down and took my entire cock into her mouth in one quick movement. I leaned back and groaned as she deep throated me, just like she had last time. Liz quickly bobbed her head up and down, swirling her tongue along my shaft and every now and then focusing on the tip of my cock, sucking hard and licking it. If she kept it up, I knew that I wouldn't handle it much longer. I ran a hand through her hair and started to guide her movements. As I began to take control, Liz seemed to blow me with even more passion. I tested this out by starting to thrust up into her mouth slightly while also holding her head. Liz let out a moan when she had my entire cock in her mouth. Her moan's vibrations felt so good on my cock that it caused me to moan as well. Now that I knew she liked me taking control, I started to thrust up more into her mouth, fucking her mouth as she blew me. A couple of times, she gagged on my cock when fucked her mouth too hard, and I said sorry, feeling bad that I did that, but she didn't say anything, instead just going back to taking my cock into her mouth. I was a little more careful after that, but she seemed to enjoy me fucking her mouth. This was something that I had often fantasized about when getting blow jobs from girls in the past, but they had never seemed to like it, and I wouldn't try and force them to do something that they were not comfortable with. I thought that I was going to be coming like that, but Liz had other plans. Liz stood up in front of me and undid her pants, dropping them onto the floor and stepping out of them, spreading her legs slightly, revealing her tight cunt right in front of my face. I leaned forward and kissed it. Liz braced herself by placing her hands on my shoulders. As I went from kissing her snatch to licking along her lips, I felt Liz tremble as I stuck my tongue inside of her. I probed my tongue inside of her, doing my best to lick at different spots and in different rhythms to pleasure here. I worked my tongue in deeper, and finally, with my face pressed right against her mound, I stuck my tongue as far as it would go. I inhaled the intoxicating scent of her snatch, wishing that I never had to go so long without being able to smell and taste it again. I had always loved the smell of a girl's cunt, and Liz's cunt was top shelf compared to the girls I had been with in the past. As I ate Liz out, she moaned my name and placed one hand at the back of my head, pushing me into her so that I could eat her out even deeper. Liz started to grind against my tongue as I tongue fucked her. She let out these cute little moans and mewling sounds that urged me to keep it up. She relaxed her grip on my head a little, and I licked up along her entire cunt, pulling my tongue away so that it just barely flicked across her clit as it passed it. Liz shook at the small contact, clenched her fist in my hair, and pushed my mouth into her cunt all at the same time. I licked along her cunt again, this time sinking my tongue into her. Liz started humping even harder against my mouth, and she moaned louder. Liz pushed my head into her, and with one last rocking of her hips, Liz cried out my name and started to cum. She tried to pull me away, but I leaned forward to keep on licking her clit as her orgasm rocked her body. After a minute, she fell back down to the bed, gasping as she got her breath. My cock was throbbing at this point. I had been so close to cumming when Liz stopped blowing me, and I was dying for a release. I started to jerk off, idly at first as I waited for her to recover, but then quicker as I realized that it was going to take Liz some time to recover. She opened her eyes and saw what I was doing. She looked mesmerized as she watched me. I got a thrill at being watched by her. I had thought about her so many times before when I was masturbating, so having her amazing naked body to look at while I was doing it was almost surreal. Liz idly run her hands up and down her own body, gently rubbing her tits. She saw how intently I watched as she pulled on a nipple. "Do you want to cum on them?" Liz asked. I felt my cock twitch when she said that. "Yes," I groaned. Liz pressed her tits together, playing rougher with them as she watched me. Now that I had an endgame, I sped up, trying to come as fast as possible. I could feel my orgasm building up. I managed to stroke myself a few more times, and then with a moan, I started to cum. My first load hit right between her tits, hitting with such force that most of it bounced up onto the hollow of her neck. I angled my cock down, and my next loads landed right on top of her tights. I continued to jerk off as I came, milking as much of my cum out as I could. Her tits became coated in my cum. I couldn't believe how erotic of a sight it was to see my cum pooling between her tits and clinging to her nipples and nipple piercings. When I finished cumming I fell onto the bed beside Liz. My whole body felt warm, and I breathed heavily. Liz lay there with me until I fell asleep. I don't know how long she let me sleep, but by the time I woke up from Liz kissing me sweetly, she had taken a shower and was in the middle of getting ready. "Wake up sleepyhead, we have to get ready for the party." Being Liz's Party Date. When I was showered and dressed, I hung out with Liz as she got ready. I hadn't realized just how much work and time went into her getting ready. It was odd seeing Liz become even more radiant as she did her hair and put on her makeup. When she was ready, I couldn't believe that such a beautiful girl wanted to spend New Year's Eve with me. She was dressed all in black, wearing a low-cut dress that barely went past the middle of her thighs. All she wore to keep the cold at bay was a black leather jacket and black stockings. She wore high heels that made her already fantastic body even more shapely. We took a Lyft to her friend's party. It was in a large Condo on one of the top floors of a new looking building. The party was crowded by the time we got there. There were so many beautiful women there. It made me think that maybe all of the most beautiful people in Portland were attending the party. It seemed like we couldn't go five minutes without someone greeting Liz. It was nice seeing that Liz was so popular. I knew that she had a hard time making friends back in high school. We spent time drinking, dancing, and talking to all of Liz's friends. I noticed some of her friends checking me out, and they seemed flirty. I wondered if Liz would get jealous. It's not like we were dating, nor could we openly date, but I didn't want to do something dumb and ruin what was going on between Liz and me. The night passed by quickly as we partied. Liz kept on dragging me off to the dance floor. It didn't take me long to drink enough to stop resisting. The more we drank, the more risqu Liz danced with me. I tried to slow things down since we were in public, but she didn't seem to care. While she pushed the line of what we should do in public, she didn't cross it. Liz's friends joined us on the dance floor. I found myself surrounded by beautiful women as they danced around us. Every now and then, Liz would break away from me to dance with one of her friends. I couldn't take my eyes off them as Liz and her sexy friends would grind against each other. Sometimes one of her friends would dance with me. One of them, a petite redhead named Claire, seemed the most interested in me because she kept dancing with me. Once I realized Liz wasn't going to get upset at me dancing with them, I embraced how provocative they were with me. It was an odd feeling as I realized how much one of them was flirting with me. After not being with a girl for so long, it felt strange to have so much attention from these sexy women. Midnight approached, and everyone started to count down together. Liz held my hand as we counted down. When it was midnight, she turned towards me. It was dumb, I know, but I was too drunk to care. I wanted to make Liz my midnight kiss. I was about to kiss her when one of her hot friends kissed her deeply. I felt left out when Claire was suddenly right next to me. We kissed. It felt good, but all I wanted to do was kiss Liz as soon as I could. We stumbled up to her apartment. I tried to will myself to sober up as I helped Liz upstairs. I couldn't remember the last time that I got this drunk. Drunk Liz was flirtier and sweeter than when she was sober. She told me how happy she was that I visited her and how much she had been missing me. I carried Liz to bed and dropped her on top of it. I helped her take off her high heels as she lay down. By the time I was done, she was already passed out. I had hoped that we would have sex, but I felt a little relieved that she was asleep. I was so tired and drunk that I doubted I would have performed well. I stripped down to my boxers and climbed into bed with her. She stirred and wrapped her arms around me. Sleep evaded me for a time as I thought about the past year, and all that had recently happened. It was a new year. Now that Liz and I had reconnected and developed our relationship in such a new direction, I was optimistic about what the year had in store for me. I stirred to get comfortable and must have woken up Liz because she groggily said, "Good night." "Good night." "I love you." It was something that we had always said to each other, but those three words seemed to have so much more weight now that we were in a romantic relationship with each other. I kissed her on the top of her head. "I love you too." Based on a post by storyteller 19, for Literotica.

Holidays With Cousin Liz: Part 2. Liz has a present for Chris. Based on a post by storyteller 19. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. We watched TV together for an hour, mostly in silence, which was rare for Liz, who loved to talk during TV and movies. Nearly the whole time, I was hard, but as turned on as I was by having Liz close again, I also didn't want to try and force things by starting something with her prematurely. It felt right to be holding Liz, and I didn't want to rush things. When it was nearly ten, Liz turned off the TV. She reached up and grabbed at my face and gently caressed it. I looked down at her, and we looked into each other's eyes. Her face was lit by the warm glow of the fireplace. She looked so beautiful. I leaned in and we kissed each other, slowly and sensually. This seemed so different from how she was last night, but not better or worse. Last night, we acted like we satisfied a hunger after starving, but on that second night together, we started out slower and more sweetly. We sat on the couch, making out for nearly a half-hour. Liz broke the kiss, and we looked into each other's eyes in the dimly lit room. Liz stood up and grabbed the fireplace poker. she stirred the remnant pieces apart and the fire transformed to a red glow. She adjusted the damper to a slight ventilation and put the tool away. Turning to me, she smiled, then grabbed my hand. I got up and then she led me into her bedroom. Liz closed the door and locked it. She went back to kissing me, pressing me against the wall. Once we were behind closed doors, she continued our liplock while she swiftly unbuckled, unsnapped, and unzipped my jeans. Swiftly she reached down into my bozers and quickly found my straining erection, and started jerking me off. I kissed down Liz's neck, sucking hard on it and making her moan. I kissed down her collarbone and the top of her chest, pulling at her Aerosmith T-shirt to kiss more of her chest. Liz pulled off her shirt, and I kissed her cleavage. She swiftly unhooked her bra and shrugged it off so that I didn't even have to pause on my way down to her nipples. I licked around her areola and then flicked my tongue across one of her nipples. As she started to moan, I latched onto her tit and began to suck on it, causing her to moan even louder. Liz ran her free hand through my hair. I took nearly all of a tit into my mouth while lapping against it with my tongue and then sucked on it, pulling on her sensitive nipples. I switched back and forth between each of her tits. Liz pulled her hand out of my pants and slipped them down further. Once they were loose, she pulled me back up to kiss her. She flicked her tongue across my lip, and then I met her tongue with mine, and we started to french kiss. Liz pulled my college sweatshirt shirt up and over my head. Once my shirt was on the floor, she sucked and nibbled my lip, and then started to kiss down my neck, rougher than she was last night. I was afraid that she was intentionally trying to leave me a hickey from how hard she was sucking on my neck. Even though it would be so stupid, I wanted some physical mark to prove to myself that this was happening with my beautiful cousin a second night in a row. Liz kissed her way down my chest. When she got down to my stomach, she pulled my pants the rest of the way down, along with my boxers. My rock-hard cock sprung up, nearly smacking Liz on the mouth as she dropped down to her knees. I slipped my feet out of my pants and kicked them away. Liz grabbed my pants and kicked them against the crack in the door, hiding that the lamp light was on. She wrapped her hand around my rigid phallus and held it at its base. Her other hand cupped under my ball-sack and fondled the two boulders within. I shivered in pleasure when Liz looked up at me with those beautiful eyes of hers and kissed the tip of my cock. She seemed to make out with it as she kissed, licked, and sucked on the top of my cock. Everything she did felt great, and being able to better see her doing it, made it feel even better. She skilfully rubbed her tongue along the sensitive frenulum while her lips locked tightly, to hold my glans ridge captive to her lustful intents. Then she leaned down and pressed her tongue onto my ball sack, licking against my balls. I hadn't been expecting her to do that, and I couldn't help but moan. Liz took one of my balls into her mouth and sucked on it. It made me feel vulnerable to her passions, but it also felt so good that it almost hurt. Liz knew just the right amount of pressure to use. She stroked me in long slow strokes as she sucked on my balls, first one, then the other, and then both at the same time. Most girls I had been with usually ignored my balls if they even gave me a blowjob, so I wasn't used to having so much time spent on them. After sucking on my balls for a few minutes, Liz put her lips back onto my cock, only this time she started to take me all the way into her mouth. In one quick motion, she took my entire length into her mouth. I moaned as she took me effortlessly into her throat. Liz held there for a minute and then slowly pulled back off my cock to catch her breath. My entire cock was coated in her saliva. Liz took a couple of breaths and then took me back into her mouth. She started to blow me quickly, her lips sliding up and down my cock effortlessly; her tongue rubbing me in a firm swallowing motion, over and over. Liz would alternate from looking down at what she was working on; and looking up at me while she blew me. When she looked me in the eyes, it turned me on so much, but it also seemed oddly intimate, and I felt slightly vulnerable as we looked at one another. After blowing me for a couple of minutes, Liz took me back all the way into her throat and held my cock there again. While I was deep inside of her, she rapidly stroked at the underside of my cock with her tongue. She kept me inside of her mouth for a minute and a half and then pulled back from my cock with a gasp. I thought she would go back to blowing me, but instead, Liz stood up, grabbed my cock, and walked towards the bed. Liz undid her pants with her other hand, and dropped them to the floor as she walked. She lay down on her back and pulled me on top of her, kissing me deeply, I straddled over her, our naked bodies pressed against each other. She reached down between us, grasped my cock, and started to rub it against her cunt lips. I froze up at the warmth and softness of her cunt. Liz nestled my cock between her cunt lips. "I want you inside of me," Liz breathed in between kisses as she started to move so that her cunt rubbed against the tip of my cock. "I want you, too," I said and then, in a moment of honesty, added, "I have wanted you for so long." "I know. Why do you think I have teased you so much all these years?" Liz said, raising her lips so that the head of my cock slipped ever so slightly more inside of her. "To annoy me?" I asked. "That's part of it." Liz laughed. "But the other reason is that I have wanted you too," Liz said. I had one last moment of doubt if I should do this or not. Liz nibbled my earlobe. "I want you to fuck me." There was so much desire in Liz's voice. I didn't know what to say to that, but I knew what I could do in response. Going All The Way. I inched forward to both enjoy this moment and make it easy in case Liz decided to change her mind. She kept on kissing me, so I continued to press forward. I slowly worked my way inside of her. She was tight and incredibly wet. It was hard not to just thrust all the way inside of her. Being inside of Liz felt so good for so many reasons. When I bottomed out inside of her, she let out a little gasp, her body arching in pleasure at the contact of me deep inside of her. I froze in place for a moment to take in the sensation of her cunt wrapped around my cock. After getting used to the fantastic feeling of her cunt I pulled nearly all the way out and then thrust back into her quickly. Liz let out a satisfied moan when she took me fully inside of her. I tried to start off slow, but Liz humped up against me, meeting my downward thrusts. It felt too good for us to take it slow, and before long, we were fucking quickly. She held onto my shoulders, holding her body up off the bed to give her better space to thrust back up against me, or she clenched at my ass, pulling me in deeper with each thrust. Fucking Liz felt so right. It seemed like we instantly knew what the other one was going to do before they did it. Every thrust was timed perfectly to ensure the highest amount of pleasure between us. It didn't take me long to work up a sweat, my body feeling both hot and cold. I was starting to get a little out of breath. If we kept up at this pace, I wouldn't last for as long. I was glad for the release from the previous night, without which I would have come instantly when I first entered her. Liz stopped humping up against me and pressed her hand against my chest. I got off her, and she pushed me down onto my back and straddled me. She held my erection in place just at the entrance of her cunt, and then she lowered herself, taking my entire cock in one quick motion. Her cunt felt even better in this position. Liz leaned down and kissed me as she started to rock her ass up and down, working my cock against the top of her snatch as she rode my cock. I laid there for a couple of minutes, enjoying the feel of Liz perfectly riding my cock. I grabbed her perfect ass and could feel her muscles tighten and loosen as she humped me. I rocked my hips in time with her. Before long, we worked our way back to the quick pace we had built up to before. Liz started to moan more and took shallow breaths as we continued to fuck. It felt good, but it was too good; I could feel each stroke bringing me closer to an orgasm. I didn't want to cum before Liz got off. There was no guarantee that anything would happen again between us. If we were going to break this taboo together, I wanted to make sure to make this the best sex possible. Without breaking the rhythm of riding my cock she pushed on my chest and straightened up so that she was straddling my cock. Immediately her cunt felt even tighter around my cock as she continued to ride me. We both moaned at the same time. Liz pulled up so that just the tip of my cock was inside of her, and then she slammed down, taking it all in at once before pulling right back up and doing it again. I grabbed at her hips and used them to help me better slide in and out of her. Every few strokes, when Liz would take me all the way inside of her, she wouldn't pull back off immediately; instead, she would do a little grinding against me so that my cock pressed even more against her cunt walls. After a few times of doing that, Liz added that grinding motion as she went up and down on my cock, making it feel even better with each stroke. I loved the way her tits bounced as she rode up and down on my cock, and the way her face would contort in pleasure when I timed a thrust perfectly or hit her in a new sensitive spot. I was getting too close to my orgasm, but Liz seemed to be breathing heavier. She started to rub at her clit while supporting herself by leaning back onto the bed with the other hand, so I hoped that she was close enough to cum before me. It gave me a better view of my cock disappearing in and out of her tight cunt with her leaning back. My cock was soaked in her juices and made me slide in and out of her with ease. She started to rock back and forth on my cock, and her fingers rubbed furiously against her clit. Liz's moans got so loud that I was afraid that we would wake up our family, but at this point, I was too far along to do anything to stop. "Awe Chris, that's it, fuck me harder," Liz said. I held onto her hips tighter and started to fuck her even harder. "Yes, yes, yes, fuck me," Liz moaned. I knew that if we kept up like this, our family would hear. I sat up and pulled Liz off me. "Why?" She asked in a huff. I pushed her down on all fours, moved around behind her, put my hands on her hips, and then entered her fully from behind in rough thrust. Liz let out a pleasure-filled, "Oh," as I bottomed out inside of her. Liz arched her ass up against me and pressed her face down onto the bed. I had dreamed about taking Liz from behind for so long, and now that I was close to cumming I made sure to enjoy my fantasy come to life. Liz started to hump back against me. I could hear her moaning loudly into the bedding. I was surprised by how much her muffled moans turned me on. I felt her place her hand back onto her clit, and she started to rub it again. I could hear Liz's muffled moans get even louder, and then she stopped humping against my cock. She pressed her cunt back against me, taking my cock inside of her and then rocking randomly against it as her orgasm hit. As she came, I stopped holding back. I thrust into her a few more times, and with a grunt, I started to cum inside her. I held onto Liz's hips to steady myself as my body went numb with pleasure as I shot my loads inside of her as we came together. Liz's random humps slowed down as her orgasm passed, and she slowly rode my cock. When she finally stopped, I pulled out of her and laid on the bed beside her, catching my breath. Liz stayed like that for a moment with her ass up in the air, and then she laid on her side facing me. We scooted towards each other and wrapped our arms around each other. We lay like that for some time. "That was;" I started to say but didn't know the words for it. Liz leaned forward and kissed me sweetly. "I know," she said. I lay there not believing what finally happened when suddenly a thought interrupted my bliss, and I nearly jumped out of bed. Liz placed one of my hands between her tits and cradled it there with her hands as I wrapped my other hand around her. Her heart was beating so fast, just like mine. "What?" Liz asked. "I came in you, I shouldn't have done that, if you get," Liz put a hand to my chest and a finger to my lips. "Calm down. I wanted you to do that, it makes it feel even better, and I am on the pill, so you don't have to worry," Liz said. "Oh, okay, good," I said, embarrassed by my outburst, and wrapped my arms back around Liz. "Merry Christmas," Liz said. "Yeah, the best merry Christmas," I said with a smile. A few minutes later, Liz got up and grabbed the towel that I had used earlier in the day. "I will be right back. I am going to go clean up," Liz said and walked out of the room. There was a bathroom right across from the bedroom, but I still thought it was crazy that Liz walked out of the room naked. I lay there with my fingers laced behind my head as I stared up at the ceiling, a smile on my face as I rode the post-sex endorphin rush. Liz stepped back inside and gently closed the door behind her. I watched as she walked towards me and climbed into bed, trying my best to ingrain the image of her naked body into my memory. Liz climbed into bed beside me, rested her head on my chest, and pressed her body against me. I held her with one arm and played with her hair. I knew she was awake for a time, but neither one of us said anything. Before long, I heard her start to snore loudly against my chest, so loud that it woke me up when I was nearly drifting off to sleep. I smiled and lay there for a few minutes, holding her and listening to her snore. Couch Time. When I was starting to drift back off to sleep, even with her snoring, I knew that I better move out to the living room before I fell asleep with Liz again. After that night's physical exertions, I doubted that I would be able to wake up again this morning. I carefully got out of bed to not wake Liz again, but I knew that she was a deep sleeper. My theory had always been that her snores made her deaf to the world as she slept. I pulled the blanket over her and tucked her in. After I got dressed, I kissed on the top of her head. I grabbed my blanket and managed to sneak a pillow again off the bed, and I went back out to the living room. It took me some time to fall asleep even though I was exhausted. I wanted nothing more than to go back into the room and sleep beside Liz but knew that I couldn't. After some tossing and turning, I finally fell asleep. I woke up to someone kissing me. I opened my eyes, and Liz beamed down at me. "Good morning," Liz said. It was still so early that the sun hadn't fully started to rise. "Good morning," I said. I sat up, and Liz climbed onto my lap. She wrapped her arms around my neck and held me tightly as she kissed me deeply. As we kissed, my fear that last night was going to be the only time we had sex evaporated. Liz kissed me like how you kissed a lover, and while I didn't know what exactly was going to happen in the future, I knew that the last couple of nights wouldn't be stand-alone events. "My family is on their way to say goodbye, and then I am going to head back to the hotel with them to pack up my stuff." "Oh," I said. Liz lived in Portland, several states away from her family. "So, my flight leaves later today, but I was wondering, since you don't have school for a few weeks, if you wanted to come and visit me," Liz asked, looking down as she spoke. I realized that she was nervous about asking me this. My fearless cousin Liz, nervous at asking me to visit her over my Christmas break. If I hadn't just had sex with Liz the night before, then seeing her nervous about something would have been the craziest thing that happened to me this weekend. I didn't say anything for a moment, and she looked up at me expectantly. "While I mean, I did have some plans," I said. When she started to pout, I couldn't go on with it, "Yeah, I can come to visit you." "You jerk, you were just stalling," Liz said as she threw her arms around me and gave me another huge kiss. I already had morning wood from when I woke up, and I got even harder as Liz started to dry hump me. I began to play with her tits when we heard footsteps coming down the steps. She jumped off me and gave me one last peck on the lips before running back into the guest room. I smiled. I was so used to seeing Liz be sarcastic and aloof; it was odd seeing this sweet side of her. I thought about that for a bit as I laid back down to look like I was still asleep. Liz took a shower first. When she emerged, she was wearing one of my T-shirts without asking, but I loved seeing her in it, so I didn't say anything to her. By the time I took a shower, more family had shown up, including Liz's. They stayed for a couple of hours to have a small breakfast and coffee before they were going to head back to the hotel and pack up. Liz and I spent every possible moment together. Not only did she give me her phone number to make sure we kept in better touch, but she also took my phone and added her Snapchat and Instagram accounts to my phone. I rarely used the apps, and I told her so, but she told me I better use them to talk to her; otherwise, I would regret it. I knew that we would see each other again soon, but I didn't want to see her leave. I walked her and her family to their rented car when it was time for them to drive back to the hotel. Our hug goodbye lingered until we reluctantly let go. As Liz was getting in the car, she checked her purse and said how her phone wasn't in it and that she must have left it in the guest room. She said she would be right back to her family and asked me to come with her to call her phone with mine. "So, where did you last see it?" I asked Liz when we walked into the room. "Right here in my bag," Liz said, holding up her phone. "Why did you say you didn't have it?" I asked her. "So that I could give you a proper goodbye," Liz said as she hugged again, but this time also kissed me. We kissed deeply for several minutes, neither one of us wanting to break off the kiss. Our kisses started to die down, and we tried to stop, but we kept on doing small kisses. We were both left panting when we finally pulled apart. "I want you so badly again," Liz said as she rested her head on my shoulder. "Me too. I don't want to see you go." "Promise you will visit me soon." "I promise," I said, already planning on seeing her as soon as possible. We walked back out to our gathered family. "Sorry it took so long. I had my phone on silent," Liz said as we walked back up. Liz gave me one last hug and then got into the car, and they drove away. I watched them leave, feeling an odd sense of loneliness. I went back to the guest room and laid in the same bed that we had had sleepovers in together when we were kids, the same bed that last night we had sex for the first time in. I pressed the pillow that she laid on last night against my face and inhaled her scent. I lay on my back and pressed the pillow to my face, and inhaled. I felt my phone go off in my pocket. I checked it, and Liz told me that they had made it back to the hotel. She asked me what I was doing, and I told her how I was lying in bed. She called me lazy, and I asked her how I could be both lazy and an overachiever at the same time? She somehow avoided answering me, even though I was confident that I was bringing up a good point. I stayed one more day at my grandparents with my family, and then the next day, I drove home. I wasn't expecting Liz and I to text so much back and forth after we left, but we ended up being in contact the entire time they headed to the airport and after. It was nice having someone to text like that and to talk on the phone with. I was surprised when she texted me later that night and asked if I could talk on the phone. I knew that she hated talking on the phone. I usually didn't like talking on the phone much either, but I enjoyed talking with Liz. She kept on dancing around talking about what happened between us. She would make our conversations sexual first, but any time I tried to speak to her about anything, she would change the subject, teasing me yet again. Texting and talking to Liz over the next couple of days became one of my new routines and habits. Every night we talked to each other, even if it was just for a few minutes and to say goodnight, and every morning we left a good morning text message for each other. I hadn't talked to anyone like this in nearly a year. I had forgotten how easy it was to be in constant communication with someone and yet still be left wanting more of them. We maintained several conversations at once between texts, DM's, and Snapchat messages. Liz liked to send me pictures of herself in whatever cute or sexy outfit she was wearing and random pictures of her making funny faces. I had never really used Snapchat much before that, so sometimes I would be at a loss as to what to send her back, but I enjoyed her attention. Occasionally she would send me sexy pictures. She liked to do this at random times with no prompting, so a couple of times I was with friends or was in the middle of doing something in public, and I would open up a message from her, and there would be my nearly naked hot cousin. She had a knack for sending me those pictures at the most inopportune times. I would compliment her pictures and tell her how beautiful I thought she was, and she would thank me, but when I would ask to see more in another picture, she would playfully refuse or say how if I wanted to see more of her again, then I had to visit her. I was already planning to celebrate New Year's with her, so she didn't have to keep on pestering me about going to visit her, but I had to be honest. The more she teased me, the more I did want to go see her again.  Portland for New Years. The drive from my Boise college dorm to Portland, was about five hours. It went by slow thanks to a few places where the road got backed up because of accidents. I should have known that something would happen to slow me down because of how badly I wanted to see Liz. I would text her every now and then when I made a stop or those times when I was backed up in traffic. She thought it would be a good idea to spam my phone with a mix of cute and sexy near-nude photos. I told her how if she didn't stop distracting me, I would never make it in time today, and she would have to go to the New Year's party all alone. I was joking, but Liz did show a little restraint and stopped sending me so many pictures after apologizing. She was just so excited to see me again. We acted like it had been years since we last saw each other instead of only a few days. We talked on the phone for the last hour of my drive. After making another reference to our taboo insest tryst, Liz finally confronted the issue. Chris, can you cite even one religious text which forbids cousins from marital relations? I mentally scanned my memories of so many years of sunday school, Bible Quiz, and countless sermons. I came up empty on actual biblical text! "Liz!" I exclaimed. "You're right! There is no such prohibition. There are countless state statutes, and exaggerated genetic narratives of birth defects. But the Bible is not banning cousins." "Yeah," Liz added. "One of my roommates is also a recovered religious addict. She found out that Isaac and Jacob both married their cousins. And Abraham married hhis half-sister." No way!" I blurted out. "But then came Mosaic Law and some restrictions were added. Yet nothing in the old or new testament bans cousins, period!" Liz emphasized. "That's what really undermines sincere people, in their spirituality, Liz. Organized religious structures and added rules where God simply gives us principles to honor." Then the conversation transitioned to some churches teaching that birth control is sin. Then what kind of sexual expressions are sin. Liz said that some churches teach that oral arousal is sodomy, because a homosexual expresses affection in that way. "Generally, churches really get hung up about sex, and it drives away people. The people often don't have a disdain for God, just a deep disappointment with organized churches." Traffic got cogested as I got closer to Portland, and I got off the phone. I made it into the city around four in the afternoon. I was impressed with the city and found it beautiful. When I pulled into the front of Liz's apartment building, I texted her that I was there, and she met me downstairs. When she saw me, she screamed my name and ran towards me and jumped into my arms and kissed me as I started to say hello back to her. I held her tight, and we stayed like that as we got our fill of each other's touch again. "I am so glad you are here," Liz said as she grabbed my hand and led me upstairs towards her apartment. Her apartment was comfortably furnished with a mix of secondhand and new looking furniture. "How was the drive?" Liz asked. "Long," I said. "Do you want to go lay down for a bit? We have some time before I have to get ready," Liz said. Napping is Code For getting some. "Yeah, that sounds great," I said. I set my bag down when we went into her room. She had a comfortable looking twin bed in the far corner of her room. The moment we were alone inside, she started to kiss me again, only this time there was more desire in her kisses. We held each other close and explored each other's bodies. I should have known what Liz had meant by asking me if I had wanted to go to bed, but sometimes it was hard for me to acknowledge that my favorite cousin and the girl that I had been talking to so much recently were the same person. When we talked to each other, for the most part, I stopped seeing her as my relative and instead saw her as the beautiful and amazing girl she was. Liz led us over to her bed and sat me down at the edge of it. While we continued to kiss, I slipped a hand underneath her shirt. She sighed when I slipped my hand inside her bra and started to play with her nipple. Liz started to undo my fly and slipped her hand inside my pants. I moaned when her hand wrapped around my erection. I missed her touch so much. Finally being able to kiss her, touch her, and be touched back was almost too much to handle. We both had been wanting each other so badly that it seemed like neither one of us was going to try and tease the other one now that we were finally together in person. I Liz pulled her shirt off and unclipped her bra, revealing her perfect perky tits. I took her closest nipple into my mouth and sucked hard on it. "Chris," Liz sighed as I flicked my tongue across her nipple and sucked on as much of her tit as I could fit into my mouth. She pulled my cock out and started to jerk it off even better as I leaned over and began to suck on her other tit. Her hand felt so good, working its way up and down my shaft. Just about every girl I had been with in the past had been needlessly too rough or too gentle when they jerked me off. Liz seemed to know the exact amount of pressure needed to please me. Liz kissed me, biting at and sucking on my bottom lip. I broke the kiss and went back to sucking on her tits, this time nibbling on her nipple and pulling on it harder as I latched on. This made Liz moan the loudest yet, and I made sure to remember that for later. Liz pulled me away from her tits and made me lean back. She leaned down and took my entire cock into her mouth in one quick movement. I leaned back and groaned as she deep throated me, just like she had last time. Liz quickly bobbed her head up and down, swirling her tongue along my shaft and every now and then focusing on the tip of my cock, sucking hard and licking it. If she kept it up, I knew that I wouldn't handle it much longer. I ran a hand through her hair and started to guide her movements. As I began to take control, Liz seemed to blow me with even more passion. I tested this out by starting to thrust up into her mouth slightly while also holding her head. Liz let out a moan when she had my entire cock in her mouth. Her moan's vibrations felt so good on my cock that it caused me to moan as well. Now that I knew she liked me taking control, I started to thrust up more into her mouth, fucking her mouth as she blew me. A couple of times, she gagged on my cock when fucked her mouth too hard, and I said sorry, feeling bad that I did that, but she didn't say anything, instead just going back to taking my cock into her mouth. I was a little more careful after that, but she seemed to enjoy me fucking her mouth. This was something that I had often fantasized about when getting blow jobs from girls in the past, but they had never seemed to like it, and I wouldn't try and force them to do something that they were not comfortable with. I thought that I was going to be coming like that, but Liz had other plans. Liz stood up in front of me and undid her pants, dropping them onto the floor and stepping out of them, spreading her legs slightly, revealing her tight cunt right in front of my face. I leaned forward and kissed it. Liz braced herself by placing her hands on my shoulders. As I went from kissing her snatch to licking along her lips, I felt Liz tremble as I stuck my tongue inside of her. I probed my tongue inside of her, doing my best to lick at different spots and in different rhythms to pleasure here. I worked my tongue in deeper, and finally, with my face pressed right against her mound, I stuck my tongue as far as it would go. I inhaled the intoxicating scent of her snatch, wishing that I never had to go so long without being able to smell and taste it again. I had always loved the smell of a girl's cunt, and Liz's cunt was top shelf compared to the girls I had been with in the past. As I ate Liz out, she moaned my name and placed one hand at the back of my head, pushing me into her so that I could eat her out even deeper. Liz started to grind against my tongue as I tongue fucked her. She let out these cute little moans and mewling sounds that urged me to keep it up. She relaxed her grip on my head a little, and I licked up along her entire cunt, pulling my tongue away so that it just barely flicked across her clit as it passed it. Liz shook at the small contact, clenched her fist in my hair, and pushed my mouth into her cunt all at the same time. I licked along her cunt again, this time sinking my tongue into her. Liz started humping even harder against my mouth, and she moaned louder. Liz pushed my head into her, and with one last rocking of her hips, Liz cried out my name and started to cum. She tried to pull me away, but I leaned forward to keep on licking her clit as her orgasm rocked her body. After a minute, she fell back down to the bed, gasping as she got her breath. My cock was throbbing at this point. I had been so close to cumming when Liz stopped blowing me, and I was dying for a release. I started to jerk off, idly at first as I waited for her to recover, but then quicker as I realized that it was going to take Liz some time to recover. She opened her eyes and saw what I was doing. She looked mesmerized as she watched me. I got a thrill at being watched by her. I had thought about her so many times before when I was masturbating, so having her amazing naked body to look at while I was doing it was almost surreal. Liz idly run her hands up and down her own body, gently rubbing her tits. She saw how intently I watched as she pulled on a nipple. "Do you want to cum on them?" Liz asked. I felt my cock twitch when she said that. "Yes," I groaned. Liz pressed her tits together, playing rougher with them as she watched me. Now that I had an endgame, I sped up, trying to come as fast as possible. I could feel my orgasm building up. I managed to stroke myself a few more times, and then with a moan, I started to cum. My first load hit right between her tits, hitting with such force that most of it bounced up onto the hollow of her neck. I angled my cock down, and my next loads landed right on top of her tights. I continued to jerk off as I came, milking as much of my cum out as I could. Her tits became coated in my cum. I couldn't believe how erotic of a sight it was to see my cum pooling between her tits and clinging to her nipples and nipple piercings. When I finished cumming I fell onto the bed beside Liz. My whole body felt warm, and I breathed heavily. Liz lay there with me until I fell asleep. I don't know how long she let me sleep, but by the time I woke up from Liz kissing me sweetly, she had taken a shower and was in the middle of getting ready. "Wake up sleepyhead, we have to get ready for the party." Being Liz's Party Date. When I was showered and dressed, I hung out with Liz as she got ready. I hadn't realized just how much work and time went into her getting ready. It was odd seeing Liz become even more radiant as she did her hair and put on her makeup. When she was ready, I couldn't believe that such a beautiful girl wanted to spend New Year's Eve with me. She was dressed all in black, wearing a low-cut dress that barely went past the middle of her thighs. All she wore to keep the cold at bay was a black leather jacket and black stockings. She wore high heels that made her already fantastic body even more shapely. We took a Lyft to her friend's party. It was in a large Condo on one of the top floors of a new looking building. The party was crowded by the time we got there. There were so many beautiful women there. It made me think that maybe all of the most beautiful people in Portland were attending the party. It seemed like we couldn't go five minutes without someone greeting Liz. It was nice seeing that Liz was so popular. I knew that she had a hard time making friends back in high school. We spent time drinking, dancing, and talking to all of Liz's friends. I noticed some of her friends checking me out, and they seemed flirty. I wondered if Liz would get jealous. It's not like we were dating, nor could we openly date, but I didn't want to do something dumb and ruin what was going on between Liz and me. The night passed by quickly as we partied. Liz kept on dragging me off to the dance floor. It didn't take me long to drink enough to stop resisting. The more we drank, the more risqu Liz danced with me. I tried to slow things down since we were in public, but she didn't seem to care. While she pushed the line of what we should do in public, she didn't cross it. Liz's friends joined us on the dance floor. I found myself surrounded by beautiful women as they danced around us. Every now and then, Liz would break away from me to dance with one of her friends. I couldn't take my eyes off them as Liz and her sexy friends would grind against each other. Sometimes one of her friends would dance with me. One of them, a petite redhead named Claire, seemed the most interested in me because she kept dancing with me. Once I realized Liz wasn't going to get upset at me dancing with them, I embraced how provocative they were with me. It was an odd feeling as I realized how much one of them was flirting with me. After not being with a girl for so long, it felt strange to have so much attention from these sexy women. Midnight approached, and everyone started to count down together. Liz held my hand as we counted down. When it was midnight, she turned towards me. It was dumb, I know, but I was too drunk to care. I wanted to make Liz my midnight kiss. I was about to kiss her when one of her hot friends kissed her deeply. I felt left out when Claire was suddenly right next to me. We kissed. It felt good, but all I wanted to do was kiss Liz as soon as I could. We stumbled up to her apartment. I tried to will myself to sober up as I helped Liz upstairs. I couldn't remember the last time that I got this drunk. Drunk Liz was flirtier and sweeter than when she was sober. She told me how happy she was that I visited her and how much she had been missing me. I carried Liz to bed and dropped her on top of it. I helped her take off her high heels as she lay down. By the time I was done, she was already passed out. I had hoped that we would have sex, but I felt a little relieved that she was asleep. I was so tired and drunk that I doubted I would have performed well. I stripped down to my boxers and climbed into bed with her. She stirred and wrapped her arms around me. Sleep evaded me for a time as I thought about the past year, and all that had recently happened. It was a new year. Now that Liz and I had reconnected and developed our relationship in such a new direction, I was optimistic about what the year had in store for me. I stirred to get comfortable and must have woken up Liz because she groggily said, "Good night." "Good night." "I love you." It was something that we had always said to each other, but those three words seemed to have so much more weight now that we were in a romantic relationship with each other. I kissed her on the top of her head. "I love you too." Based on a post by storyteller 19, for Literotica.

Holidays With Cousin Liz: Part 1. Cousins reconnect over the winter holidays. Based on a post by storyteller 19. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. I was driving back from Boise, to be with family for Christmas. That semester had been my most challenging yet. I was exhausted and ready for some time relaxing with my family. We usually had the holidays at my grandparents' house in Boulder, Colorado. Being raised in the Arizona desert, I wasn't used to driving in the snow, so the last one hundred miles were slow going for me. It didn't help that it had started to snow again, adding even more snow to the roads. Initially, I planned to get to the family party hours early, but now I would be lucky if I got there before dinner. It was supposed to be less than a 12 hour drive, but that doesn't take in the factors of road conditions and holiday traffic. The snow kept falling, but I managed to make it to the house just ahead of the snowstorm's main bulk. It seemed like everyone was there already from all the cars parked in front of the house. I got out of my car shivering. My jacket barely reduced the cutting chill from icy cold wind. I walked awkwardly to the trunk and pulled out the gifts that I had for gotten. No matter how many times I was in the snow, which wasn't often, I doubted I would ever get used to it. When I was at the door, I took a deep breath. I regretted it immediately because of the frigid air. I quickly opened the door. I was hit by an immediate warmth and brightness as I stepped inside. "Let me help you with that cousin," a silky-smooth voice said to me as I walked in. My cousin Liz walked towards me from the mini sitting area that overlooked the front yard. Just looking at her filled me with warmth. Liz was the cousin that I was the closest to. We were both the only child in our immediate family. Since we were nearly the same age, we had been inseparable at family events, basically since we were born. Liz helped me put my presents under the large Christmas tree near where she had been sitting. As soon as I put the gifts down, she threw her arms around me in a tight hug. I squeezed her back. Out of my family, she had been the one I was looking forward the most to seeing. I hadn't seen her in person in a year, as we had both missed the thanksgiving get-together, this year. We texted infrequently and were friends on Facebook, but she rarely used it. "You look great," I told her. She had her blonde hair in a cute pixie cut, and it was dyed several bright colors going down to the tips. She was wearing a black jacket with a black dress under. Her ears were heavily pierced, and she had a single stud in her nose. Her parents were the extreme religious ones in the family, so they had seemed to stifle Liz her whole life with their beliefs. The moment Liz could, she got out of their household and moved in with some friends. "You're looking great too," Liz said, squeezing my broad shoulders as she pulled away from my hug. I felt my body go warm at her compliment. Liz kept her hand on my shoulders and started to guide me towards the kitchen where most of the family had gathered. "Come on, everyone's been dying to talk to Chris, the golden boy." I felt a little guilty at that, but I knew that Liz didn't mean that as an insult. She was the black sheep, and I was the golden boy. My family were happy to see me, and everyone wanted to spend the entire evening catching up. I enjoyed spending time with them, but it was Liz who I really wanted to catch up with. She spent a lot of the night around me, often raising an eyebrow or giving me a deadpan look when one of my family said something that they shouldn't have. Liz sat next to me at the dinner table, and I finally got some time to talk to her. I tried to ask her about herself, but she seemed to avoid talking about herself and gave me vague answers. We had always been close, so I started to feel confused by this, wondering if maybe in the last year we had finally grown apart. I began to get the hint and stopped bugging her about her personal life. We talked about other things, mostly books and TV shows that we had a shared interest in. Still, it seemed superficial compared to our usual winding conversations that had no limits. Taboo Topics. After dinner, we found ourselves hanging out in the garage. Liz was smoking a cigarette, blowing the smoke through a cracked door that lead to the side of the backyard. This was always the place we would run off to when we wanted to escape the rest of the family. We were doing what we always did, teasing each other. "Come on, you were the one who used to have a crush on me when we were kids," Liz said. That was something that I doubted she was ever going to let me forget about. "Hey, if I remember correctly, you were the one who always wanted to play house and insisted on being husband and wife," I said. "Only so I could kick your lazy ass out when you burned dinner or didn't wash the dishes." "The food was plastic, and we didn't have running water in our playhouse. You didn't have to make me literally sleep in the doghouse!" I said. That was before we had a firm grasp that it was a saying and not literal. "Yes, I did," She said, leaning towards me. I leaned forward. "Why?" "Because it was funny," Liz said. We were leaning so close together, and we both became quiet, which was rare for Liz once she started teasing me. I looked into her beautiful eyes, thinking thoughts that I had been suppressing for years. I couldn't look into her eyes anymore. I thought the year away from her would be enough for me finally to get over my crush on my cousin, but instead, that absence seemed to make those feelings even stronger. I looked up, and my eyes went wide at what I saw nailed above us. Liz looked up and saw what I was looking at. "Mistletoe," Liz said and looked back into my eyes. The part of my brain that held my impulses in check must have been frozen from the cold weather. There was the briefest hesitation, and then we kissed. We wrapped our arms around each other, and the kiss deepened. This is it. It's finally happening. I was surprised by how right something that was supposed to be wrong felt. Now that my urges were finally free, I slid my hand down her back and squeezed her ass through her dress. Liz let out a surprised little moan at that, and she jumped away from my hand and against me. When she settled back down, I started to massage her ass. She moaned and leaned her head back against the wall while arching her lower body towards me and pressing her pelvis into mine. I kissed down her chin and started to kiss her pale neck. With each kiss, she let out tiny little exhales that were both cute and sexy. When I reached the hollow of her neck, I sucked hard. Liz moaned louder this time and ground her snatch into me. I kissed across the front of her neck and repeated the same thing on the other side with the same result. With a finger on my chin, she guided my lips back up to hers. Her succulent lips felt better than I could have ever imagined. Liz lowered a hand down my chest. I thought she was just going to rub my chest, but her hand kept on going lower. I had only a few seconds to realize what she was doing when she grasped my erection through my jeans and rubbed it. I faltered in kissing her because of the unexpected touch. Liz used my distraction to suck on my lip. It all felt so good, and I didn't want it to end. No sooner than when I thought that then I heard one of our family members approaching. We pulled apart quickly and caught our breath as our grandma walked into the garage to get something out of the fridge in there. She said one of our uncles was leaving for the night and for us to say goodbye. "Okay grandma, we will be right there," Liz said. Our grandma left. Liz rested her head on my shoulder, and I held her lightly as we calmed down. Once calmed down, Liz pulled back. Liz looked like she was about to say something but stopped. "Come on, let's go say good night." She didn't seem her usual confident self. I didn't blame her, what we just did had crossed a line that we shouldn't have, but she didn't seem to be upset at what just happened. As I followed her inside, I noticed more sway to her stride that drew attention to her ass. We walked back in and said goodbye to the first of the family to leave. It seemed like that was the cue for others to go because the others started to follow suit. Some of my family stayed at my grandparents' house, while the rest stayed at a nearby hotel. To keep it fair, my grandparents switched out every year who got to stay at their home. My family branch were the lucky ones who got to stay at my grandparents' house that year. Within a couple of hours, the only ones left at the house were my family and Liz's. They finally decided to leave for the night and told Liz that it was time to go now, interrupting her when she was in the middle of a conversation with me. Liz gave me a look and rolled her eyes. "I will be right back." When Liz came back, she told me how her family was leaving and then just stayed with me. "Aren't you going to leave with them?" I asked, confused. "No, I think I am going to stay here and hang out with my favorite cousin." "Okay, cool," I said and smiled. I had been afraid that maybe she was freaked out by our kiss and would want to get away from me as soon as possible. "But you have to give me a ride to the hotel later," Liz added. I did my best to keep my groan inward. After the drive I had, I didn't want to drive again for as long as possible, but if it was for Liz, then I would. "Okay." Liz and I sat in the downstairs living room on a wide loveseat, near the fireplace; as we continued to talk and reconnect after a year apart. She was still elusive when I asked her what she did for work. "It's just some dumb job that I don't like to think about. "So, Do the girls put out more in college?" she asked. "What?" I asked, even though I had heard her. I got flustered as I tried to answer. Liz laughed. "Relax, I was just joking." Around nine my grandparents said goodnight and went upstairs to their bedroom. My parents went up to bed a little later, leaving just Liz and me sitting downstairs alone. Liz asked me again about my dating life. "I don't really know. I am too busy with schoolwork and football. It doesn't really leave me much room for dating," I said. "But I bet girls are throwing themselves at you," Liz said. I thought about lying to her, but we had always told each other everything. "Yeah, there have been some girls that I have hooked up with that I met at parties, but dating never works out, since I am so busy." Liz leaned forward, pressing her hands on my thigh. "Why don't you tell me about one of those times," Liz said. "What; You mean," "Tell me about one of the last times that you hooked up with a girl," Liz said. Her voice became sultry. I hesitated. "Come on, we used to tell each other everything. I told you about what a train wreck the first time I tried to give a guy a blowjob." Liz was right. We used to tell each other everything that happened in our love and sex lives. It was one of the things that had lent so much concrete imagery to my fantasies about being with Liz. "Wasn't that when his pubes got stuck in your braces?" I asked. Liz took her hand off my thigh and hit me on the chest. "At least I didn't come instantly the first time a girl touched me between my legs." "Hey, that happens to a lot of people," I said, no longer enjoying this once I realized that if I wanted to go to war with her on this, that I had probably provided her with more than enough ammunition to take me down. "See. We used to tell each other everything, the good and the bad. I miss that." Liz took my hand and squeezed it. I had been thinking about it as well. "Okay," I said. "I went to one of the fraternity houses parties last year a few nights after we lost our chance of making it to the championship." "The match against the Aztecs?" Liz asked. "Yes, I am surprised you know that." Sports was never something we talked about. "I follow some college football and watched some games. Mostly because number 48 has such a cute ass," Liz said. I couldn't help but go red in the face at her compliment. "Yeah, that game. I was upset that we had lost, so the party was a great way to blow off steam, and I was drinking a bit more than I usually did." Liz laughed but didn't say what I knew she wanted to say. Those who knew me, knew that I couldn't hold my alcohol. Chris and the Sorority Girl. "I was messing around on the dance floor, and there was this beautiful girl out of nowhere dancing right up against me. I hadn't gotten much action for a bit since I was so busy, so when a hot girl started to grind against me, I didn't question it and grinded back." Liz's hand went back to my thigh and gently rubbed it as I told my story. "What happened next?" "The songs that kept on coming up were high energy ones, and we working up a sweat as we danced together. She would press herself right up against my erection and grind back into it, or work her hand down in between us, and she would grab and rub my shaft." Liz started to rub my thigh even harder. "I had my hands on her hips, and she grabbed them and guided them to where I wanted to touch the whole time, Down to her ass which was barely contained in the shorts she was wearing, up to her tits, she wasn't wearing a bra, and then back down, only this time she pressed my hand to the front of her shorts, and I could feel how warm she was and how her wetness was starting to soak through." Liz's hand inched closer towards my cock, but stopped just a couple inches short. "I will be right back," she said and got up, just when things were getting good. Liz came back a couple of minutes later and was holding her AirPods in her hands. "Here," She said, handing me one. "What?" I asked. Liz didn't answer; she just put her AirPod in. Liz had picked an EDM, electronic dance music song. Before I could ask her what she was doing, she grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. I stood up, and she guided me up over to the center of the room. "Dance," Liz told me. Since I hadn't had much more than a couple of glasses of wine that night with the family, I was far from being drunk enough to dance without inhibitions, but I decided to indulge her and started to try and dance to the music. A moment later, Liz began to grind her ass against me. She turned around and looked me in the eye as she ran her hands down my broad chest and pressed her body against me. Re-enacting A Dance Scene. I realized that she was enacting my story with me. I danced with Liz, enjoying the songs that she was playing and how she moved her body. I kept my eyes on her, taking in every movement. She moved so perfectly, I wondered when she got so good at dancing. Liz used to be so uncoordinated back when we were kids. She reached down between us. She ran her fingers along my erection, squeezing gently as she did. When on the fourth or fifth song, the high beats per minute songs switched to something a bit slower, and we danced more sensually against each other. Liz guided my hands from her hips down to her ass. I squeezed. It felt as if there was no barrier between her ass and my hands with how soft the material was. I pulled her short dress up and was surprised when I didn't feel any panties on her. I felt her panty line when I had been lowering my hands, So I realized that she must have been wearing a thong. Liz's ass felt so soft and toned, she had always been skinny growing up, but now she seemed to have put on some layers of lean muscle. Liz let me play with her ass for an entire song while she rubbed my erection through my jeans. At the start of the next song, Liz grabbed one of my hands and to pulled it up and around to her front. I knew where she was taking my hand, and I tried to rush my touch along. She set the pace and made me slow down my approach to her tits. When she finally let me put my hand over one of her tits, I started to paw at it roughly in excitement but managed to get a hold of myself and begin to fondle them a bit more gently. As I enjoyed the feel of her tits and ass in my hands, I thought for a moment how this couldn't get any better. I was pleasantly wrong. When the next song started, Liz grabbed my hand from touching her ass. I found my hand pressing against her snatch through her thin dress. Warmth radiated from her cunt as she pressed her body into me. I rubbed at her cunt, and she rubbed my cock up and down, jerking me off through my pants. She began to kiss up my neck, alternating from licking gently to sucking hard. The drop in the song happened, and Liz pulled me down and kissed me deeply. As we made out while dancing, she started to grind against my erection. I felt amazing, but I knew that it was only a small sample of the pleasure she could give me. "What happened next?" Liz asked me after kissing me deeply again. "She grabbed my hand and led me to one of the empty bedrooms," I said. That's when Liz grabbed my hand and led me to the guest bedroom, locking the door behind us. It was the only bedroom on the ground level of the house. "She pushed me down onto the bed." Liz did so. "And then she took off my pants, and before I had time to even think, she had my cock in her mouth and started to blow me." I didn't know if Liz would keep up with following along with the story I was telling, but if she did, then I was going to be glad that I had chosen this one. I wondered if she would do this. Making out and grinding against your cousin was one thing, but a blowjob was crossing even further past that line that I had been staring at for years. Liz reached down and started to undo my pants. I couldn't believe this was really happening when she got my belt open and pulled my pants and boxers down. I raised my hips to make it easier. For a moment, I thought that this might all be for a prank. Liz had been teasing me for years. She had gone through some great lengths in the past to embarrass me. I knew this was a paranoid thought, but it held for a moment. My erection sprung free, close to Liz's mouth as she continued to pull my pants down. She looked down at my cock for a moment. This would be the time for her to stop before we did something that we maybe shouldn't. I wasn't going to voice any complaints, it had all felt so good and right so far, but if she was too scared to take things even further, then I wouldn't blame her. Liz leaned down and kissed the tip of my erection. She swirled her tongue around the top of my erection and then started to take me into her mouth. I let out a moan as she made it halfway down my cock and continued to take it all the way in. Liz was beautiful, and the added taboo of my cousin sucking my cock made it look and feel even better. I watched intently as Liz took my entire seven inches into her mouth. When she got to the end, she deepthroated my cock without even pausing. I moaned again. Liz slowly pulled her mouth back off it. Once back up to the top, Liz sucked deeply on my cock head, her cheeks hollowing inwards. Liz effortlessly sucked on my cock. This was the best blowjob I had ever had. She was not only skilled at doing this, but she also did it eagerly. Liz licked from the bottom to top, using her tongue piercing to trace a path up along my shaft. I shivered as she pressed the metal up along my shaft. I had always had fantasies of having a girl with a tongue piercing blow me. Liz made it to the top of my shaft and twirled her tongue around my cock again, holding eye contact with me as she did it. She then licked at the sensitive part at the bottom of my cock head. The alternating feeling of her soft, warm tongue and the smoothness of the metal there made me moan again, louder this time. "Quiet," Liz scolded me, but I could tell in her voice that she was happy that she could cause me to have such a reaction. Liz blew me to the frantic beat of the song we were listening to. It all felt and looked so good. I was getting close to cumming, but I tried to hold back. Liz started to massage my balls with one hand, jerking me off with the other. She bobbed her head and moved her hand in one motion, touching most of my cock at once. When she would stroke downward, she would let go with all but her thumb and forefinger so that she could still take nearly all of me into her mouth, and then in her upward motion would add back the fingers as she jerked me off.   Lips of Liz. "Liz, I'm getting close," I groaned. Liz redoubled her efforts at blowing me and somehow managed to blow me even better than before. A minute was all I could last with this increased stimulation, and I grunted that I was about to cum. Liz blew me even harder and took me back into her throat. The soft pressure was too much, and I started to cum. I shot my first couple of loads right into her throat. Liz swallowed a couple of times, something that felt amazing with me still in her throat. She pulled back a little so the last couple of loads filled her mouth. Liz continued to blow me while milking the last of my cum up and out before swallowing one last time. "So, how was that, compared to the girl in your story?" Liz asked as she wiped off her mouth. "That was the best blow job I ever had," I said. I was still feeling such strong bliss that I was unable to not tell the truth. I only hoped me saying that wouldn't get to her head. Liz pulled her dress over her head. She was wearing a matching lacey black bra and panties. The black lingerie looked great against her pale skin. She climbed on top of me, and we started to make out. I began to play with her tits through her bra. Liz reached back and unclipped it so that it fell off under my touch. I continued to play with her perky tits, amazed finally to be touching them directly. I played with her nipples and her nipple piercings, gently pulling on them. Liz moaned into our kiss. Liz broke off the kiss and straightened up over my mouth, bringing her tits in closer. I leaned up and latched onto one of her nipples. She moaned loudly and pulled my head against her tits. I sucked harder. Liz held my head against her tit, and I opened my mouth, sucking most of her perky tit into my mouth. I could feel the heat and wetness from her sex as she straddled against my chest. I switched over to her other nipple, sucking hard on it. Liz started to grind her cunt into my chest as I continued to suck hard on her tits. I swirled my tongue around her nipple, and she moaned loudly. I told Liz that she needed to be quiet, and she answered me by pushing me back down so that I was lying on my back. She climbed over the top of me until her snatch, in all its glory, was spread out above me. As she lowered, I eagerly leaned up and stuck my tongue in between her lips. I alternated between licking along her outer lips and slipping my tongue inside of her. Even her snatch tasted better than any other girl who I had gone down on before. I flicked my tongue up and along her clit after a couple of minutes of ignoring it on purpose. Liz's entire body shook when I finally licked it, and she pressed her snatch down onto my mouth. Each additional lick caused her a mini spasm. As I ate her out, Liz started to grind her snatch down onto my mouth, timing her movements against my licks so that there would be the most amount of contact between us. She to pressed her snatch down onto my mouth for increasing amounts of time, making it hard to breathe sometimes, but I loved having her snatch right up against my mouth. As she rode my face, I was able to stick my tongue even deeper inside of her. It seemed like the deeper my tongue went, the better her snatch tasted. Reluctantly, I pulled back to catch my breath. When I went to lick her clit, she was rubbing it. I pushed my tongue deep inside of her. I did my best to take my time and focus on how Liz responded to what I did. I wanted to make Liz cum, but I knew that this wouldn't feel good for her if I tried to rush it. She seemed to like it when I would lick along the top of her snatch, licking her clit when she moved her fingers away to let me have access to it. As her orgasm approached, I did something that I knew would surprise her. When I pulled my tongue out of her, I shifted down a little and flicked my tongue along her anus. It was a good thing that Liz had her face pushed down onto the pillow because when I flicked my tongue across it, she moaned loudly into the bedding. I licked along the edge of her anus, and she moaned again. I worked my tongue closer from the edge. When I finally pressed my tongue against the center, she shivered. I reached up and started to rub along her anus with my fingers while I went back to licking her cunt. I began to rub her rosebud right at the center and then pressed my finger inside of her. When I worked the tip of my finger inside of her, she froze up. I was afraid that I had overstepped in doing this to her. I started to pull my finger back out of her. "No, leave it in," Liz said, so I did. Liz began to hump again against my face. She moved slower as she pushed my finger slowly in and out of her ass. Liz built back up to speed, my finger working its way in and out of her. She must have done anal before because she seemed to get used to my finger inside of her quickly. Liz built back up to her orgasm and started to grind against my mouth and finger even harder. She let out a loud muffled moan, and then she shook on top of me as she came. She pressed her cunt against my mouth and her ass clenched around my finger. Liz let out one last moan, and then she went limp on top of me. Liz climbed off it and under the blankets. I didn't know what to do when she called me to join her in bed. Once I was under the covers, she pressed her naked body against me. I was grateful for her body warmth; this room was always coldest in the house. Sleep came easily to me with Liz in my arms. Christmas Morning. I woke up at five in the morning on Christmas Day, feeling incredibly warm. I wondered where the source of the warmth was coming from. As I moved my hand, I felt the suppleness of a tit. The memories of last night came flooding back. I was in bed with my cousin Liz! I knew that I should get up soon before anyone else in the house woke up and discovered Liz in bed with me. The door was locked, but if we emerged from a locked room together, that would look strange. I kept telling myself to get up and go lay on the couch, but then I would tell myself that another five minutes wouldn't hurt. Liz's naked and warm body pressed against me just felt too good. I had forgotten that Liz was a snorer, which I thought was cute but would be making fun of her for later. Finally, when it was close to six, I forced myself to get up. I grabbed a blanket from out of the closet and a pillow from the bed. It was a delicate maneuver since Liz was somehow on every pillow at once. After I managed to pull one pillow out from under her arm, I looked down on Liz's beautiful naked body; she had kicked off the covers as I went to grab a pillow. She wasn't covered in tattoos yet, but the ones she did have, looked cool and accented her pale, beautiful body. I pulled the blanket back over her and kissed her on her forehead. Her brow lost its furrow, she smiled, and stopped stirring in her sleep. I got dressed and went back to the living room with the fireplace. The couch was so plush that I fell asleep quickly. The smell of bacon frying and the sound of cooking in the kitchen woke me up. I wanted to get up and investigate, but it was so warm under the blanket. I decided to wait to get up until breakfast was fully ready. I felt someone standing over me, and then a moment later, I was being poked in the ribs. "Wake up sleepy head, breakfast is almost ready, and the whole family is almost here." I rolled out from the blanket and looked up. Liz was wearing a pink apron with white frills on the edges that contrasted with her black band t-shirt and ripped jeans that she knew drove her parents crazy. "Nice apron." "Are you sure you want to make fun of the person who is going to be serving your food?" Liz asked. "Point taken. It looks good on you." "Sure," Liz said and walked back towards the kitchen. I watched her walk, admiring the sway of her hips and the way her jeans clung to her ass. When Liz was nearly back into the kitchen, she looked around and caught me checking her out. She smiled at me, and then she was in the kitchen and then out of sight behind a counter. I had been worried that maybe things would be weird between us after what had happened between us the night before, but things seemed to be okay. I felt a weight lifted from inside as I realized what happened wouldn't drive a wedge between Liz and me. I folded up my blanket and returned it and the pillow back where they came from. Liz had left the bed unmade. I shook my head at her and made the bed back up, which was a struggle with how much she had kicked the blankets and under sheet around during the night. Once the bed was made, I used the restroom and walked into the kitchen. My entire family was there, seated at the small table or on the barstool chairs, drinking coffee or orange juice. "It's about time you are up. You never sleep in," my mom said, handing me a glass of orange juice. "It's my fault. I kept him up late last night catching up and talking," Liz said. "That's why you didn't come back to your hotel room last night?" Liz's mom asked. "Yeah, it got too late for Christo take me home, so he let me have the guest room and slept on the couch," Liz said. "We thought you went out," Liz's mom said. There was so much venom in her voice as she said that, as if going out for a night on the town was one of the vilest things she could imagine. "Geeze, mom, it's not like I am going to go out and fuck some random guy on Christmas Eve when I am in town to be with family. I spent all night with Chris, so unless you think I fucked my cousin last night, then you have nothing to worry about." The whole kitchen fell silent at this, and I nearly spit out my orange juice at what Liz just said. I guess what she said was technically true, we didn't have sex last night, but I still couldn't believe that she said that to her mom. Liz's mom did what she did whenever she got embarrassed by some vulgar thing Liz said, and she stormed away. Liz's dad gave her a look and followed his wife. It wasn't a family get together if Liz's mom didn't storm away at least once. It seemed good that the quota had been met so early in the day because the rest of the family went right back to what they were doing. When breakfast was ready, everyone grabbed a plate and went to the mountain of breakfast food to load up their plates. Christmas breakfast wasn't as formal as dinner, where we would all eat together in the dining room. The dining room and kitchen were full, so we went out to the heated porch to eat. "I still can't believe you said that to your mom," I said to Liz as we sat down. "Hey, technically, it was the truth. I am tired of her constantly trying to degrade me in front of the family just because I am not in college, not because I need to get an education, but in her words, that's where I need to be if I want to find a good man to settle down with. All she wants of me is to be some housewife. Don't even get me started on all of the times she told me I was going to be going to hell," Liz said exasperatedly. "Yeah, technically it was the truth, but still crazy that you said it," I said. I took a bite of perfectly crispy bacon. "Relax, they wouldn't put something crazy like that past me doing, but it's not like they are going to think bad of the family's golden boy," Liz said. I hated whenever she called me that, and it usually would get to me enough for me to call her something back, but I was in too good of a mood to let her goad me into one of our usual arguments. I started to talk lower and hated getting serious so suddenly, but I didn't want to leave things vague between us. If I didn't ask, I would worry all day, and I would rather face the issue than leave myself wondering about it all day. "So, you don't regret anything about what happened last night?" I asked. Liz looked like she was about to say another joke, but she seemed to change my mind when she saw how serious I was. "I don't have any regrets about last night. I enjoyed it, and you did too. What is there to regret?" "Nothing, I just wanted to make sure things are still okay between us." "Don't worry , cuz, I think things are more than okay between us." I nearly jumped when I felt Liz's hand on my thigh. Liz smiled at me, that same smile that she gave me last night when she was about to blow me. Liz rubbed her hand on my thigh. "What does that mean?" I asked. "I think you can figure it out," Liz said and pulled her hand away. "Wait, did you just use my pants as a napkin?" "Yep," Liz said as she grabbed our empty plates and got up to take them to the kitchen. After breakfast, we did the gift exchange under the large fake Christmas tree, like we always did. I thought it was a little weird that we still did this tradition even though the youngest in the family were too old for it, but no one so far had started to have kids yet. It was messed up, but most of my family had thought Liz would be the first to have a kid, from my cousins and me, most likely in high school, according to Liz's mom, but Liz seemed smart and stubborn enough to not prove them right. I loved my family, but some of them were really fucked up when it came to Liz. I always tried to be the mediator and hold the family together when there were fights, but it took a lot out of me. I had to admit that even though we were too old for some of these traditions, I still enjoyed them, even if they were also annoying. I had to be so much for so many people, back at school that it was nice to come home and just focus on how my family saw me and on myself. The version of myself that my family saw, was also tough to uphold, but it was sometimes the closest version of myself. Family Memories on video. After the present exchange, my grandparents got out the scrapbooks and home movies and reminisced about past holidays and events. Liz sat next to me, cramming me into the edge of the sofa. With so many of us in the living room with the fireplace, all the seats were full. Other chairs had been carried over from the kitchen. Liz was pressed right against me, her familiar warmth a constant reminder of last night. As the trips down the well-traveled memory lane were trodden down yet again, Liz initially tried to act like she was bored and didn't care. Before long, she joined in the retelling of family events, usually to defend herself when a story was brought up about something bad that she had done. Still, I could tell that she enjoyed spending this time with her family. Those conversations were some of the only times Liz and her mom talked to each other without any malice, as they remembered their stories. I got a warm feeling in my stomach from all of this. Some things had changed, but they were still close enough for me to be able to slip back into the nostalgia. Throughout the day, Liz would do little things to remind me of the previous night. When it was just us or when no one was looking, Liz would whisper filthy things into my ear and pat me on the ass or grab at my crotch. I would get red in the face. Every time I tried to say something to her, another family member would always pop up, so I would have to stop what I was about to say. I would give Liz a look, telling her that I would say something later, but she would just smile or shrug. She always seemed her happiest when she was messing with me. We had Christmas dinner early. This time everyone sat together at the dining room table. My grandparents said grace, and then we started to eat. I was surprised that Liz and her mom managed to get along the whole day after their argument in the morning. This second party was even better than the one the night before. Everyone seemed to be in the holiday spirit. I wanted the day to last forever, so of course, time flew by. Before I knew it, family members started to go back to their hotels, and then everyone was off to bed again. Liz chose to stay longer and hang out with me again. We found ourselves on the couch again, watching TV together. We were originally sitting on opposite ends of the couch, but the moment the last of our family went up to go to bed, Liz scooted over and lay against me. Having her be close again, and us finally be alone, made my heart thump wildly from nerves. I wondered if anything was going to happen again between us, and if so, what? I hadn't felt this nervous around a girl in years. I wrapped an arm around her, and Liz snuggled up against me. To be continued. Based on a post by storyteller 19, for Literotica. Holidays With Cousin Liz: Part 2. Liz has a present for Chris. Based on a post by storyteller 19. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. We watched TV together for an hour, mostly in silence, which was rare for Liz, who loved to talk during TV and movies. Nearly the whole time, I was hard, but as turned on as I was by having Liz close again, I also didn't want to try and force things by starting something with her prematurely. It felt right to be holding Liz, and I didn't want to rush things. When it was nearly ten, Liz turned off the TV. She reached up and grabbed at my face and gently caressed it. I looked down at her, and we looked into each other's eyes. Her face was lit by the warm glow of the fireplace. She looked so beautiful. I leaned in and we kissed each other, slowly and sensually. This seemed so different from how she was last night, but not better or worse. Last night, we acted like we satisfied a hunger after starving, but on that second night together, we started out slower and more sweetly. We sat on the couch, making out for nearly a half-hour. Liz broke the kiss, and we looked into each other's eyes in the dimly lit room. Liz stood up and grabbed the fireplace poker. she stirred the remnant pieces apart and the fire transformed to a red glow. She adjusted the damper to a slight ventilation and put the tool away. Turning to me, she smiled, then grabbed my hand. I got up and then she led me into her bedroom. Liz closed the door and locked it. She went back to kissing me, pressing me against the wall. Once we were behind closed doors, she continued our liplock while she swiftly unbuckled, unsnapped, and unzipped my jeans. Swiftly she reached down into my bozers and quickly found my straining erection, and started jerking me off. I kissed down Liz's neck, sucking hard on it and making her moan. I kissed down her collarbone and the top of her chest, pulling at her Aerosmith T-shirt to kiss more of her chest. Liz pulled off her shirt, and I kissed her cleavage. She swiftly unhooked her bra and shrugged it off so that I didn't even have to pause on my way down to her nipples. I licked around her areola and then flicked my tongue across one of her nipples. As she started to moan, I latched onto her tit and began to suck on it, causing her to moan even louder. Liz ran her free hand through my hair. I took nearly all of a tit into my mouth while lapping against it with my tongue and then sucked on it, pulling on her sensitive nipples. I switched back and forth between each of her tits. Liz pulled her hand out of my pants and slipped them down further. Once they were loose, she pulled me back up to kiss her. She flicked her tongue across my lip, and then I met her tongue with mine, and we started to french kiss. Liz pulled my college sweatshirt shirt up and over my head. Once my shirt was on the floor, she sucked and nibbled my lip, and then started to kiss down my neck, rougher than she was last night. I was afraid that she was intentionally trying to leave me a hickey from how hard she was sucking on my neck. Even though it would be so stupid, I wanted some physical mark to prove to myself that this was happening with my beautiful cousin a second night in a row. Liz kissed her way down my chest. When she got down to my stomach, she pulled my pants the rest of the way down, along with my boxers. My rock-hard cock sprung up, nearly smacking Liz on the mouth as she dropped down to her knees. I slipped my feet out of my pants and kicked them away. Liz grabbed my pants and kicked them against the crack in the door, hiding that the lamp light was on. She wrapped her hand around my rigid phallus and held it at its base. Her other hand cupped under my ball-sack and fondled the two boulders within. I shivered in pleasure when Liz looked up at me with those beautiful eyes of hers and kissed the tip of my cock. She seemed to make out with it as she kissed, licked, and sucked on the top of my cock. Everything she did felt great, and being able to better see her doing it, made it feel even better. She skilfully rubbed her tongue along the sensitive frenulum while her lips locked tightly, to hold my glans ridge captive to her lustful intents. Then she leaned down and pressed her tongue onto my ball sack, licking against my balls. I hadn't been expecting her to do that, and I couldn't help but moan. Liz took one of my balls into her mouth and sucked on it. It made me feel vulnerable to her passions, but it also felt so good that it almost hurt. Liz knew just the right amount of pressure to use. She stroked me in long slow strokes as she sucked on my balls, first one, then the other, and then both at the same time. Most girls I had been with usually ignored my balls if they even gave me a blowjob, so I wasn't used to having so much time spent on them. After sucking on my balls for a few minutes, Liz put her lips back onto my cock, only this time she started to take me all the way into her mouth. In one quick motion, she took my entire length into her mouth. I moaned as she took me effortlessly into her throat. Liz held there for a minute and then slowly pulled back off my cock to catch her breath. My entire cock was coated in her saliva. Liz took a couple of breaths and then took me back into her mouth. She started to blow me quickly, her lips sliding up and down my cock effortlessly; her tongue rubbing me in a firm swallowing motion, over and over. Liz would alternate from looking down at what she was working on; and looking up at me while she blew me. When she looked me in the eyes, it turned me on so much, but it also seemed oddly intimate, and I felt slightly vulnerable as we looked at one another. After blowing me for a couple of minutes, Liz took me back all the way into her throat and held my cock there again. While I was deep inside of her, she rapidly stroked at the underside of my cock with her tongue. She kept me inside of her mouth for a minute and a half and then pulled back from my cock with a gasp. I thought she would go back to blowing me, but instead, Liz stood up, grabbed my cock, and walked towards the bed. Liz undid her pants with her other hand, and dropped them to the floor as she walked. She lay down on her back and pulled me on top of her, kissing me deeply, I straddled over her, our naked bodies pressed against each other. She reached down between us, grasped my cock, and started to rub it against her cunt lips. I froze up at the warmth and softness of her cunt. Liz nestled my cock between her cunt lips. "I want you inside of me," Liz breathed in between kisses as she started to move so that her cunt rubbed against the tip of my cock. "I want you, too," I said and then, in a moment of honesty, added, "I have wanted you for so long." "I know. Why do you think I have teased you so much all these years?" Liz said, raising her lips so that the head of my cock slipped ever so slightly more inside of her. "To annoy me?" I asked. "That's part of it." Liz laughed. "But the other reason is that I have wanted you too," Liz said. I had one last moment of doubt if I should do this or not. Liz nibbled my earlobe. "I want you to fuck me." There was so much desire in Liz's voice. I didn't know what to say to that, but I knew what I could do in response. Going All The Way. I inched forward to both enjoy this moment and make it easy in case Liz decided to change her mind. She kept on kissing me, so I continued to press forward. I slowly worked my way inside of her. She was tight and incredibly wet. It was hard not to just thrust all the way inside of her. Being inside of Liz felt so good for so many reasons. When I bottomed out inside of her, she let out a little gasp, her body arching in pleasure at the contact of me deep inside of her. I froze in place for a moment to take in the sensation of her cunt wrapped around my cock. After getting used to the fantastic feeling of her cunt I pulled nearly all the way out and then thrust back into her quickly. Liz let out a satisfied moan when she took me fully inside of her. I tried to start off slow, but Liz humped up against me, meeting my downward thrusts. It felt too good for us to take it slow, and before long, we were fucking quickly. She held onto my shoulders, holding her body up off the bed to give her better space to thrust back up against me, or she clenched at my ass, pulling me in deeper with each thrust. Fucking Liz felt so right. It seemed like we instantly knew what the other one was going to do before they did it. Every thrust was timed perfectly to ensure the highest amount of pleasure between us. It didn't take me long to work up a sweat, my body feeling both hot and cold. I was starting to get a little out of breath. If we kept up at this pace, I wouldn't last for as long. I was glad for the release from the previous night, without which I would have come instantly when I first entered her. Liz stopped humping up against me and pressed her hand against my chest. I got off her, and she pushed me down onto my back and straddled me. She held my erection in place just at the entrance of her cunt, and then she lowered herself, taking my entire cock in one quick motion. Her cunt felt even better in this position. Liz leaned down and kissed me as she started to rock her ass up and down, working my cock against the top of her snatch as she rode my cock. I laid there for a couple of minutes, enjoying the feel of Liz perfectly riding my cock. I grabbed her perfect ass and could feel her muscles tighten and loosen as she humped me. I rocked my hips in time with her. Before long, we worked our way back to the quick pace we had built up to before. Liz started to moan more and took shallow breaths as we continued to fuck. It felt good, but it was too good; I could feel each stroke bringing me closer to an orgasm. I didn't want to cum before Liz got off. There was no guarantee that anything would happen again between us. If we were going to break this taboo together, I wanted to make sure to make this the best sex possible. Without breaking the rhythm of riding my cock she pushed on my chest and straightened up so that she was straddling my cock. Immediately her cunt felt even tighter around my cock as she continued to ride me. We both moaned at the same time. Liz pulled up so that just the tip of my cock was inside of her, and then she slammed down, taking it all in at once before pulling right back up and doing it again. I grabbed at her hips and used them to help me better slide in and out of her. Every few strokes, when Liz would take me all the way inside of her, she wouldn't pull back off immediately; instead, she would do a little grinding against me so that my cock pressed even more against her cunt walls. After a few times of doing that, Liz added that grinding motion as she went up and down on my cock, making it feel even better with each stroke. I loved the way her tits bounced as she rode up and down on my cock, and the way her face would contort in pleasure when I timed a thrust perfectly or hit her in a new sensitive spot. I was getting too close to my orgasm, but Liz seemed to be breathing heavier. She started to rub at her clit while supporting herself by leaning back onto the bed with the other hand, so I hoped that she was close enough to cum before me. It gave me a better view of my cock disappearing in and out of her tight cunt with her leaning back. My cock was soaked in her juices and made me slide in and out of her with ease. She started to rock back and forth on my cock, and her fingers rubbed furiously against her clit. Liz's moans got so loud that I was afraid that we would wake up our family, but at this point, I was too far along to do anything to stop. "Awe Chris, that's it, fuck me harder," Liz said. I held onto her hips tighter and started to fuck her even harder. "Yes, yes, yes, fuck me," Liz moaned. I knew that if we kept up like this, our family would hear. I sat up and pulled Liz off me. "Why?" She asked in a huff. I pushed her down on all fours, moved around behind her, put my hands on her hips, and then entered her fully from behind in rough thrust. Liz let out a pleasure-filled, "Oh," as I bottomed out inside of her. Liz arched her ass up against me and pressed her face down onto the bed. I had dreamed about taking Liz from behind for so long, and now that I was close to cumming I made sure to enjoy my fantasy come to life. Liz started to hump back against me. I could hear her moaning loudly into the bedding. I was surprised by how much her muffled moans turned me on. I felt her place her hand back onto her clit, and she started to rub it again. I could hear Liz's muffled moans get even louder, and then she stopped humping against my cock. She pressed her cunt back against me, taking my cock inside of her and then rocking randomly against it as her orgasm hit. As she came, I stopped holding back. I thrust into her a few more times, and with a grunt, I started to cum inside her. I held onto Liz's hips to steady myself as my body went numb with pleasure as I shot my loads inside of her as we came together. Liz's random humps slowed down as her orgasm passed, and she slowly rode my cock. When she finally stopped, I pulled out of her and laid on the bed beside her, catching my breath. Liz stayed like that for a moment with her ass up in the air, and then she laid on her side facing me. We scooted towards each other and wrapped our arms around each other. We lay like that for some time. "That was;" I started to say but didn't know the words for it. Liz leaned forward and kissed me sweetly. "I know," she said. I lay there not believing what finally happened when suddenly a thought interrupted my bliss, and I nearly jumped out of bed. Liz placed one of my hands between her tits and cradled it there with her hands as I wrapped my other hand around her. Her heart was beating so fast, just like mine. "What?" Liz asked. "I came in you, I shouldn't have done that, if you get," Liz put a hand to my chest and a finger to my lips. "Calm down. I wanted you to do that, it makes it feel even better, and I am on the pill, so you don't have to worry," Liz said. "Oh, okay, good," I said, embarrassed by my outburst, and wrapped my arms back around Liz. "Merry Christmas," Liz said. "Yeah, the best merry Christmas," I said with a smile. A few minutes later, Liz got up and grabbed the towel that I had used earlier in the day. "I will be right back. I am going to go clean up," Liz said and walked out of the room. There was a bathroom right across from the bedroom, but I still thought it was crazy that Liz walked out of the room naked. I lay there with my fingers laced behind my head as I stared up at the ceiling, a smile on my face as I rode the post-sex endorphin rush. Liz stepped back inside and gently closed the door behind her. I watched as she walked towards me and climbed into bed, trying my best to ingrain the image of her naked body into my memory. Liz climbed into bed beside me, rested her head on my chest, and pressed her body against me. I held her with one arm and played with her hair. I knew she was awake for a time, but neither one of us said anything. Before long, I heard her start to snore loudly against my chest, so loud that it woke me up when I was nearly drifting off to sleep. I smiled and lay there for a few minutes, holding her and listening to her snore. Couch Time. When I was starting to drift back off to sleep, even with her snoring, I knew that I better move out to the living room before I fell asleep with Liz again. After that night's physical exertions, I doubted that I would be able to wake up again this morning. I carefully got out of bed to not wake Liz again, but I knew that she was a deep sleeper. My theory had always been that her snores made her deaf to the world as she slept. I pulled the blanket over her and tucked her in. After I got dressed, I kissed on the top of her head. I grabbed my blanket and managed to sneak a pillow again off the bed, and I went back out to the living room. It took me some time to fall asleep even though I was exhausted. I wanted nothing more than to go back into the room and sleep beside Liz but knew that I couldn't. After some tossing and turning, I finally fell asleep. I woke up to someone kissing me. I opened my eyes, and Liz beamed down at me. "Good morning," Liz said. It was still so early that the sun hadn't fully started to rise. "Good morning," I said. I sat up, and Liz climbed onto my lap. She wrapped her arms around my neck and held me tightly as she kissed me deeply. As we kissed, my fear that last night was going to be the only time we had sex evaporated. Liz kissed me like how you kissed a lover, and while I didn't know what exactly was going to happen in the future, I knew that the last couple of nights wouldn't be stand-alone events. "My family is on their way to say goodbye, and then I am going to head back to the hotel with them to pack up my stuff." "Oh," I said. Liz lived in Portland, several states away from her family. "So, my flight leaves later today, but I was wondering, since you don't have school for a few weeks, if you wanted to come and visit me," Liz asked, looking down as she spoke. I realized that she was nervous about asking me this. My fearless cousin Liz, nervous at asking me to visit her over my Christmas break. If I hadn't just had sex with Liz the night before, then seeing her nervous about something would have been the craziest thing that happened to me this weekend. I didn't say anything for a moment, and she looked up at me expectantly. "While I mean, I did have some plans," I said. When she started to pout, I couldn't go on with it, "Yeah, I can come to visit you." "You jerk, you were just stalling," Liz said as she threw her arms around me and gave me another huge kiss. I already had morning wood from when I woke up, and I got even harder as Liz started to dry hump me. I began to play with her tits when we heard footsteps coming down the steps. She jumped off me and gave me one last peck on the lips before running back into the guest room. I smiled. I was so used to seeing Liz be sarcastic and aloof; it was odd seeing this sweet side of her. I thought about that for a bit as I laid back down to look like I was still asleep. Liz took a shower first. When she emerged, she was wearing one of my T-shirts without asking, but I loved seeing her in it, so I didn't say anything to her. By the time I took a shower, more family had shown up, including Liz's. They stayed for a couple of hours to have a small breakfast and coffee before they were going to head back to the hotel and pack up. Liz and I spent every possible moment together. Not only did she give me her phone number to make sure we kept in better touch, but she also took my phone and added her Snapchat and Instagram accounts to my phone. I rarely used the apps, and I told her so, but she told me I better use them to talk to her; otherwise, I would regret it. I knew that we would see each other again soon, but I didn't want to see her leave. I walked her and her family to their rented car when it was time for them to drive back to the hotel. Our hug goodbye lingered until we reluctantly let go. As Liz was getting in the car, she checked her purse and said how her phone wasn't in it and that she must have left it in the guest room. She said she would be right back to her family and asked me to come with her to call her phone with mine. "So, where did you last see it?" I asked Liz when we walked into the room. "Right here in my bag," Liz said, holding up her phone. "Why did you say you didn't have it?" I asked her. "So that I could give you a proper goodbye," Liz said as she hugged again, but this time also kissed me. We kissed deeply for several minutes, neither one of us wanting to break off the kiss. Our kisses started to die down, and we tried to stop, but we kept on doing small kisses. We were both left panting when we finally pulled apart. "I want you so badly again," Liz said as she rested her head on my shoulder. "Me too. I don't want to see you go." "Promise you will visit me soon." "I promise," I said, already planning on seeing her as soon as possible. We walked back out to our gathered family. "Sorry it took so long. I had my phone on silent," Liz said as we walked back up. Liz gave me one last hug and then got into the car, and they drove away. I watched them leave, feeling an odd sense of loneliness. I went back to the guest room and laid in the same bed that we had had sleepovers in together when we were kids, the same bed that last night we had sex for the first time in. I pressed the pillow that she laid on last night against my face and inhaled her scent. I lay on my back and pressed the pillow to my face, and inhaled. I felt my phone go off in my pocket. I checked it, and Liz told me that they had made it back to the hotel. She asked me what I was doing, and I told her how I was lying in bed. She called me lazy, and I asked her how I could be both lazy and an overachiever at the same time? She somehow avoided answering me, even though I was confident that I was bringing up a good point. I stayed one more day at my grandparents with my family, and then the next day, I drove home. I wasn'

Holidays With Cousin Liz: Part 1. Cousins reconnect over the winter holidays. Based on a post by storyteller 19. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. I was driving back from Boise, to be with family for Christmas. That semester had been my most challenging yet. I was exhausted and ready for some time relaxing with my family. We usually had the holidays at my grandparents' house in Boulder, Colorado. Being raised in the Arizona desert, I wasn't used to driving in the snow, so the last one hundred miles were slow going for me. It didn't help that it had started to snow again, adding even more snow to the roads. Initially, I planned to get to the family party hours early, but now I would be lucky if I got there before dinner. It was supposed to be less than a 12 hour drive, but that doesn't take in the factors of road conditions and holiday traffic. The snow kept falling, but I managed to make it to the house just ahead of the snowstorm's main bulk. It seemed like everyone was there already from all the cars parked in front of the house. I got out of my car shivering. My jacket barely reduced the cutting chill from icy cold wind. I walked awkwardly to the trunk and pulled out the gifts that I had for gotten. No matter how many times I was in the snow, which wasn't often, I doubted I would ever get used to it. When I was at the door, I took a deep breath. I regretted it immediately because of the frigid air. I quickly opened the door. I was hit by an immediate warmth and brightness as I stepped inside. "Let me help you with that cousin," a silky-smooth voice said to me as I walked in. My cousin Liz walked towards me from the mini sitting area that overlooked the front yard. Just looking at her filled me with warmth. Liz was the cousin that I was the closest to. We were both the only child in our immediate family. Since we were nearly the same age, we had been inseparable at family events, basically since we were born. Liz helped me put my presents under the large Christmas tree near where she had been sitting. As soon as I put the gifts down, she threw her arms around me in a tight hug. I squeezed her back. Out of my family, she had been the one I was looking forward the most to seeing. I hadn't seen her in person in a year, as we had both missed the thanksgiving get-together, this year. We texted infrequently and were friends on Facebook, but she rarely used it. "You look great," I told her. She had her blonde hair in a cute pixie cut, and it was dyed several bright colors going down to the tips. She was wearing a black jacket with a black dress under. Her ears were heavily pierced, and she had a single stud in her nose. Her parents were the extreme religious ones in the family, so they had seemed to stifle Liz her whole life with their beliefs. The moment Liz could, she got out of their household and moved in with some friends. "You're looking great too," Liz said, squeezing my broad shoulders as she pulled away from my hug. I felt my body go warm at her compliment. Liz kept her hand on my shoulders and started to guide me towards the kitchen where most of the family had gathered. "Come on, everyone's been dying to talk to Chris, the golden boy." I felt a little guilty at that, but I knew that Liz didn't mean that as an insult. She was the black sheep, and I was the golden boy. My family were happy to see me, and everyone wanted to spend the entire evening catching up. I enjoyed spending time with them, but it was Liz who I really wanted to catch up with. She spent a lot of the night around me, often raising an eyebrow or giving me a deadpan look when one of my family said something that they shouldn't have. Liz sat next to me at the dinner table, and I finally got some time to talk to her. I tried to ask her about herself, but she seemed to avoid talking about herself and gave me vague answers. We had always been close, so I started to feel confused by this, wondering if maybe in the last year we had finally grown apart. I began to get the hint and stopped bugging her about her personal life. We talked about other things, mostly books and TV shows that we had a shared interest in. Still, it seemed superficial compared to our usual winding conversations that had no limits. Taboo Topics. After dinner, we found ourselves hanging out in the garage. Liz was smoking a cigarette, blowing the smoke through a cracked door that lead to the side of the backyard. This was always the place we would run off to when we wanted to escape the rest of the family. We were doing what we always did, teasing each other. "Come on, you were the one who used to have a crush on me when we were kids," Liz said. That was something that I doubted she was ever going to let me forget about. "Hey, if I remember correctly, you were the one who always wanted to play house and insisted on being husband and wife," I said. "Only so I could kick your lazy ass out when you burned dinner or didn't wash the dishes." "The food was plastic, and we didn't have running water in our playhouse. You didn't have to make me literally sleep in the doghouse!" I said. That was before we had a firm grasp that it was a saying and not literal. "Yes, I did," She said, leaning towards me. I leaned forward. "Why?" "Because it was funny," Liz said. We were leaning so close together, and we both became quiet, which was rare for Liz once she started teasing me. I looked into her beautiful eyes, thinking thoughts that I had been suppressing for years. I couldn't look into her eyes anymore. I thought the year away from her would be enough for me finally to get over my crush on my cousin, but instead, that absence seemed to make those feelings even stronger. I looked up, and my eyes went wide at what I saw nailed above us. Liz looked up and saw what I was looking at. "Mistletoe," Liz said and looked back into my eyes. The part of my brain that held my impulses in check must have been frozen from the cold weather. There was the briefest hesitation, and then we kissed. We wrapped our arms around each other, and the kiss deepened. This is it. It's finally happening. I was surprised by how right something that was supposed to be wrong felt. Now that my urges were finally free, I slid my hand down her back and squeezed her ass through her dress. Liz let out a surprised little moan at that, and she jumped away from my hand and against me. When she settled back down, I started to massage her ass. She moaned and leaned her head back against the wall while arching her lower body towards me and pressing her pelvis into mine. I kissed down her chin and started to kiss her pale neck. With each kiss, she let out tiny little exhales that were both cute and sexy. When I reached the hollow of her neck, I sucked hard. Liz moaned louder this time and ground her snatch into me. I kissed across the front of her neck and repeated the same thing on the other side with the same result. With a finger on my chin, she guided my lips back up to hers. Her succulent lips felt better than I could have ever imagined. Liz lowered a hand down my chest. I thought she was just going to rub my chest, but her hand kept on going lower. I had only a few seconds to realize what she was doing when she grasped my erection through my jeans and rubbed it. I faltered in kissing her because of the unexpected touch. Liz used my distraction to suck on my lip. It all felt so good, and I didn't want it to end. No sooner than when I thought that then I heard one of our family members approaching. We pulled apart quickly and caught our breath as our grandma walked into the garage to get something out of the fridge in there. She said one of our uncles was leaving for the night and for us to say goodbye. "Okay grandma, we will be right there," Liz said. Our grandma left. Liz rested her head on my shoulder, and I held her lightly as we calmed down. Once calmed down, Liz pulled back. Liz looked like she was about to say something but stopped. "Come on, let's go say good night." She didn't seem her usual confident self. I didn't blame her, what we just did had crossed a line that we shouldn't have, but she didn't seem to be upset at what just happened. As I followed her inside, I noticed more sway to her stride that drew attention to her ass. We walked back in and said goodbye to the first of the family to leave. It seemed like that was the cue for others to go because the others started to follow suit. Some of my family stayed at my grandparents' house, while the rest stayed at a nearby hotel. To keep it fair, my grandparents switched out every year who got to stay at their home. My family branch were the lucky ones who got to stay at my grandparents' house that year. Within a couple of hours, the only ones left at the house were my family and Liz's. They finally decided to leave for the night and told Liz that it was time to go now, interrupting her when she was in the middle of a conversation with me. Liz gave me a look and rolled her eyes. "I will be right back." When Liz came back, she told me how her family was leaving and then just stayed with me. "Aren't you going to leave with them?" I asked, confused. "No, I think I am going to stay here and hang out with my favorite cousin." "Okay, cool," I said and smiled. I had been afraid that maybe she was freaked out by our kiss and would want to get away from me as soon as possible. "But you have to give me a ride to the hotel later," Liz added. I did my best to keep my groan inward. After the drive I had, I didn't want to drive again for as long as possible, but if it was for Liz, then I would. "Okay." Liz and I sat in the downstairs living room on a wide loveseat, near the fireplace; as we continued to talk and reconnect after a year apart. She was still elusive when I asked her what she did for work. "It's just some dumb job that I don't like to think about. "So, Do the girls put out more in college?" she asked. "What?" I asked, even though I had heard her. I got flustered as I tried to answer. Liz laughed. "Relax, I was just joking." Around nine my grandparents said goodnight and went upstairs to their bedroom. My parents went up to bed a little later, leaving just Liz and me sitting downstairs alone. Liz asked me again about my dating life. "I don't really know. I am too busy with schoolwork and football. It doesn't really leave me much room for dating," I said. "But I bet girls are throwing themselves at you," Liz said. I thought about lying to her, but we had always told each other everything. "Yeah, there have been some girls that I have hooked up with that I met at parties, but dating never works out, since I am so busy." Liz leaned forward, pressing her hands on my thigh. "Why don't you tell me about one of those times," Liz said. "What; You mean," "Tell me about one of the last times that you hooked up with a girl," Liz said. Her voice became sultry. I hesitated. "Come on, we used to tell each other everything. I told you about what a train wreck the first time I tried to give a guy a blowjob." Liz was right. We used to tell each other everything that happened in our love and sex lives. It was one of the things that had lent so much concrete imagery to my fantasies about being with Liz. "Wasn't that when his pubes got stuck in your braces?" I asked. Liz took her hand off my thigh and hit me on the chest. "At least I didn't come instantly the first time a girl touched me between my legs." "Hey, that happens to a lot of people," I said, no longer enjoying this once I realized that if I wanted to go to war with her on this, that I had probably provided her with more than enough ammunition to take me down. "See. We used to tell each other everything, the good and the bad. I miss that." Liz took my hand and squeezed it. I had been thinking about it as well. "Okay," I said. "I went to one of the fraternity houses parties last year a few nights after we lost our chance of making it to the championship." "The match against the Aztecs?" Liz asked. "Yes, I am surprised you know that." Sports was never something we talked about. "I follow some college football and watched some games. Mostly because number 48 has such a cute ass," Liz said. I couldn't help but go red in the face at her compliment. "Yeah, that game. I was upset that we had lost, so the party was a great way to blow off steam, and I was drinking a bit more than I usually did." Liz laughed but didn't say what I knew she wanted to say. Those who knew me, knew that I couldn't hold my alcohol. Chris and the Sorority Girl. "I was messing around on the dance floor, and there was this beautiful girl out of nowhere dancing right up against me. I hadn't gotten much action for a bit since I was so busy, so when a hot girl started to grind against me, I didn't question it and grinded back." Liz's hand went back to my thigh and gently rubbed it as I told my story. "What happened next?" "The songs that kept on coming up were high energy ones, and we working up a sweat as we danced together. She would press herself right up against my erection and grind back into it, or work her hand down in between us, and she would grab and rub my shaft." Liz started to rub my thigh even harder. "I had my hands on her hips, and she grabbed them and guided them to where I wanted to touch the whole time, Down to her ass which was barely contained in the shorts she was wearing, up to her tits, she wasn't wearing a bra, and then back down, only this time she pressed my hand to the front of her shorts, and I could feel how warm she was and how her wetness was starting to soak through." Liz's hand inched closer towards my cock, but stopped just a couple inches short. "I will be right back," she said and got up, just when things were getting good. Liz came back a couple of minutes later and was holding her AirPods in her hands. "Here," She said, handing me one. "What?" I asked. Liz didn't answer; she just put her AirPod in. Liz had picked an EDM, electronic dance music song. Before I could ask her what she was doing, she grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. I stood up, and she guided me up over to the center of the room. "Dance," Liz told me. Since I hadn't had much more than a couple of glasses of wine that night with the family, I was far from being drunk enough to dance without inhibitions, but I decided to indulge her and started to try and dance to the music. A moment later, Liz began to grind her ass against me. She turned around and looked me in the eye as she ran her hands down my broad chest and pressed her body against me. Re-enacting A Dance Scene. I realized that she was enacting my story with me. I danced with Liz, enjoying the songs that she was playing and how she moved her body. I kept my eyes on her, taking in every movement. She moved so perfectly, I wondered when she got so good at dancing. Liz used to be so uncoordinated back when we were kids. She reached down between us. She ran her fingers along my erection, squeezing gently as she did. When on the fourth or fifth song, the high beats per minute songs switched to something a bit slower, and we danced more sensually against each other. Liz guided my hands from her hips down to her ass. I squeezed. It felt as if there was no barrier between her ass and my hands with how soft the material was. I pulled her short dress up and was surprised when I didn't feel any panties on her. I felt her panty line when I had been lowering my hands, So I realized that she must have been wearing a thong. Liz's ass felt so soft and toned, she had always been skinny growing up, but now she seemed to have put on some layers of lean muscle. Liz let me play with her ass for an entire song while she rubbed my erection through my jeans. At the start of the next song, Liz grabbed one of my hands and to pulled it up and around to her front. I knew where she was taking my hand, and I tried to rush my touch along. She set the pace and made me slow down my approach to her tits. When she finally let me put my hand over one of her tits, I started to paw at it roughly in excitement but managed to get a hold of myself and begin to fondle them a bit more gently. As I enjoyed the feel of her tits and ass in my hands, I thought for a moment how this couldn't get any better. I was pleasantly wrong. When the next song started, Liz grabbed my hand from touching her ass. I found my hand pressing against her snatch through her thin dress. Warmth radiated from her cunt as she pressed her body into me. I rubbed at her cunt, and she rubbed my cock up and down, jerking me off through my pants. She began to kiss up my neck, alternating from licking gently to sucking hard. The drop in the song happened, and Liz pulled me down and kissed me deeply. As we made out while dancing, she started to grind against my erection. I felt amazing, but I knew that it was only a small sample of the pleasure she could give me. "What happened next?" Liz asked me after kissing me deeply again. "She grabbed my hand and led me to one of the empty bedrooms," I said. That's when Liz grabbed my hand and led me to the guest bedroom, locking the door behind us. It was the only bedroom on the ground level of the house. "She pushed me down onto the bed." Liz did so. "And then she took off my pants, and before I had time to even think, she had my cock in her mouth and started to blow me." I didn't know if Liz would keep up with following along with the story I was telling, but if she did, then I was going to be glad that I had chosen this one. I wondered if she would do this. Making out and grinding against your cousin was one thing, but a blowjob was crossing even further past that line that I had been staring at for years. Liz reached down and started to undo my pants. I couldn't believe this was really happening when she got my belt open and pulled my pants and boxers down. I raised my hips to make it easier. For a moment, I thought that this might all be for a prank. Liz had been teasing me for years. She had gone through some great lengths in the past to embarrass me. I knew this was a paranoid thought, but it held for a moment. My erection sprung free, close to Liz's mouth as she continued to pull my pants down. She looked down at my cock for a moment. This would be the time for her to stop before we did something that we maybe shouldn't. I wasn't going to voice any complaints, it had all felt so good and right so far, but if she was too scared to take things even further, then I wouldn't blame her. Liz leaned down and kissed the tip of my erection. She swirled her tongue around the top of my erection and then started to take me into her mouth. I let out a moan as she made it halfway down my cock and continued to take it all the way in. Liz was beautiful, and the added taboo of my cousin sucking my cock made it look and feel even better. I watched intently as Liz took my entire seven inches into her mouth. When she got to the end, she deepthroated my cock without even pausing. I moaned again. Liz slowly pulled her mouth back off it. Once back up to the top, Liz sucked deeply on my cock head, her cheeks hollowing inwards. Liz effortlessly sucked on my cock. This was the best blowjob I had ever had. She was not only skilled at doing this, but she also did it eagerly. Liz licked from the bottom to top, using her tongue piercing to trace a path up along my shaft. I shivered as she pressed the metal up along my shaft. I had always had fantasies of having a girl with a tongue piercing blow me. Liz made it to the top of my shaft and twirled her tongue around my cock again, holding eye contact with me as she did it. She then licked at the sensitive part at the bottom of my cock head. The alternating feeling of her soft, warm tongue and the smoothness of the metal there made me moan again, louder this time. "Quiet," Liz scolded me, but I could tell in her voice that she was happy that she could cause me to have such a reaction. Liz blew me to the frantic beat of the song we were listening to. It all felt and looked so good. I was getting close to cumming, but I tried to hold back. Liz started to massage my balls with one hand, jerking me off with the other. She bobbed her head and moved her hand in one motion, touching most of my cock at once. When she would stroke downward, she would let go with all but her thumb and forefinger so that she could still take nearly all of me into her mouth, and then in her upward motion would add back the fingers as she jerked me off.   Lips of Liz. "Liz, I'm getting close," I groaned. Liz redoubled her efforts at blowing me and somehow managed to blow me even better than before. A minute was all I could last with this increased stimulation, and I grunted that I was about to cum. Liz blew me even harder and took me back into her throat. The soft pressure was too much, and I started to cum. I shot my first couple of loads right into her throat. Liz swallowed a couple of times, something that felt amazing with me still in her throat. She pulled back a little so the last couple of loads filled her mouth. Liz continued to blow me while milking the last of my cum up and out before swallowing one last time. "So, how was that, compared to the girl in your story?" Liz asked as she wiped off her mouth. "That was the best blow job I ever had," I said. I was still feeling such strong bliss that I was unable to not tell the truth. I only hoped me saying that wouldn't get to her head. Liz pulled her dress over her head. She was wearing a matching lacey black bra and panties. The black lingerie looked great against her pale skin. She climbed on top of me, and we started to make out. I began to play with her tits through her bra. Liz reached back and unclipped it so that it fell off under my touch. I continued to play with her perky tits, amazed finally to be touching them directly. I played with her nipples and her nipple piercings, gently pulling on them. Liz moaned into our kiss. Liz broke off the kiss and straightened up over my mouth, bringing her tits in closer. I leaned up and latched onto one of her nipples. She moaned loudly and pulled my head against her tits. I sucked harder. Liz held my head against her tit, and I opened my mouth, sucking most of her perky tit into my mouth. I could feel the heat and wetness from her sex as she straddled against my chest. I switched over to her other nipple, sucking hard on it. Liz started to grind her cunt into my chest as I continued to suck hard on her tits. I swirled my tongue around her nipple, and she moaned loudly. I told Liz that she needed to be quiet, and she answered me by pushing me back down so that I was lying on my back. She climbed over the top of me until her snatch, in all its glory, was spread out above me. As she lowered, I eagerly leaned up and stuck my tongue in between her lips. I alternated between licking along her outer lips and slipping my tongue inside of her. Even her snatch tasted better than any other girl who I had gone down on before. I flicked my tongue up and along her clit after a couple of minutes of ignoring it on purpose. Liz's entire body shook when I finally licked it, and she pressed her snatch down onto my mouth. Each additional lick caused her a mini spasm. As I ate her out, Liz started to grind her snatch down onto my mouth, timing her movements against my licks so that there would be the most amount of contact between us. She to pressed her snatch down onto my mouth for increasing amounts of time, making it hard to breathe sometimes, but I loved having her snatch right up against my mouth. As she rode my face, I was able to stick my tongue even deeper inside of her. It seemed like the deeper my tongue went, the better her snatch tasted. Reluctantly, I pulled back to catch my breath. When I went to lick her clit, she was rubbing it. I pushed my tongue deep inside of her. I did my best to take my time and focus on how Liz responded to what I did. I wanted to make Liz cum, but I knew that this wouldn't feel good for her if I tried to rush it. She seemed to like it when I would lick along the top of her snatch, licking her clit when she moved her fingers away to let me have access to it. As her orgasm approached, I did something that I knew would surprise her. When I pulled my tongue out of her, I shifted down a little and flicked my tongue along her anus. It was a good thing that Liz had her face pushed down onto the pillow because when I flicked my tongue across it, she moaned loudly into the bedding. I licked along the edge of her anus, and she moaned again. I worked my tongue closer from the edge. When I finally pressed my tongue against the center, she shivered. I reached up and started to rub along her anus with my fingers while I went back to licking her cunt. I began to rub her rosebud right at the center and then pressed my finger inside of her. When I worked the tip of my finger inside of her, she froze up. I was afraid that I had overstepped in doing this to her. I started to pull my finger back out of her. "No, leave it in," Liz said, so I did. Liz began to hump again against my face. She moved slower as she pushed my finger slowly in and out of her ass. Liz built back up to speed, my finger working its way in and out of her. She must have done anal before because she seemed to get used to my finger inside of her quickly. Liz built back up to her orgasm and started to grind against my mouth and finger even harder. She let out a loud muffled moan, and then she shook on top of me as she came. She pressed her cunt against my mouth and her ass clenched around my finger. Liz let out one last moan, and then she went limp on top of me. Liz climbed off it and under the blankets. I didn't know what to do when she called me to join her in bed. Once I was under the covers, she pressed her naked body against me. I was grateful for her body warmth; this room was always coldest in the house. Sleep came easily to me with Liz in my arms. Christmas Morning. I woke up at five in the morning on Christmas Day, feeling incredibly warm. I wondered where the source of the warmth was coming from. As I moved my hand, I felt the suppleness of a tit. The memories of last night came flooding back. I was in bed with my cousin Liz! I knew that I should get up soon before anyone else in the house woke up and discovered Liz in bed with me. The door was locked, but if we emerged from a locked room together, that would look strange. I kept telling myself to get up and go lay on the couch, but then I would tell myself that another five minutes wouldn't hurt. Liz's naked and warm body pressed against me just felt too good. I had forgotten that Liz was a snorer, which I thought was cute but would be making fun of her for later. Finally, when it was close to six, I forced myself to get up. I grabbed a blanket from out of the closet and a pillow from the bed. It was a delicate maneuver since Liz was somehow on every pillow at once. After I managed to pull one pillow out from under her arm, I looked down on Liz's beautiful naked body; she had kicked off the covers as I went to grab a pillow. She wasn't covered in tattoos yet, but the ones she did have, looked cool and accented her pale, beautiful body. I pulled the blanket back over her and kissed her on her forehead. Her brow lost its furrow, she smiled, and stopped stirring in her sleep. I got dressed and went back to the living room with the fireplace. The couch was so plush that I fell asleep quickly. The smell of bacon frying and the sound of cooking in the kitchen woke me up. I wanted to get up and investigate, but it was so warm under the blanket. I decided to wait to get up until breakfast was fully ready. I felt someone standing over me, and then a moment later, I was being poked in the ribs. "Wake up sleepy head, breakfast is almost ready, and the whole family is almost here." I rolled out from the blanket and looked up. Liz was wearing a pink apron with white frills on the edges that contrasted with her black band t-shirt and ripped jeans that she knew drove her parents crazy. "Nice apron." "Are you sure you want to make fun of the person who is going to be serving your food?" Liz asked. "Point taken. It looks good on you." "Sure," Liz said and walked back towards the kitchen. I watched her walk, admiring the sway of her hips and the way her jeans clung to her ass. When Liz was nearly back into the kitchen, she looked around and caught me checking her out. She smiled at me, and then she was in the kitchen and then out of sight behind a counter. I had been worried that maybe things would be weird between us after what had happened between us the night before, but things seemed to be okay. I felt a weight lifted from inside as I realized what happened wouldn't drive a wedge between Liz and me. I folded up my blanket and returned it and the pillow back where they came from. Liz had left the bed unmade. I shook my head at her and made the bed back up, which was a struggle with how much she had kicked the blankets and under sheet around during the night. Once the bed was made, I used the restroom and walked into the kitchen. My entire family was there, seated at the small table or on the barstool chairs, drinking coffee or orange juice. "It's about time you are up. You never sleep in," my mom said, handing me a glass of orange juice. "It's my fault. I kept him up late last night catching up and talking," Liz said. "That's why you didn't come back to your hotel room last night?" Liz's mom asked. "Yeah, it got too late for Christo take me home, so he let me have the guest room and slept on the couch," Liz said. "We thought you went out," Liz's mom said. There was so much venom in her voice as she said that, as if going out for a night on the town was one of the vilest things she could imagine. "Geeze, mom, it's not like I am going to go out and fuck some random guy on Christmas Eve when I am in town to be with family. I spent all night with Chris, so unless you think I fucked my cousin last night, then you have nothing to worry about." The whole kitchen fell silent at this, and I nearly spit out my orange juice at what Liz just said. I guess what she said was technically true, we didn't have sex last night, but I still couldn't believe that she said that to her mom. Liz's mom did what she did whenever she got embarrassed by some vulgar thing Liz said, and she stormed away. Liz's dad gave her a look and followed his wife. It wasn't a family get together if Liz's mom didn't storm away at least once. It seemed good that the quota had been met so early in the day because the rest of the family went right back to what they were doing. When breakfast was ready, everyone grabbed a plate and went to the mountain of breakfast food to load up their plates. Christmas breakfast wasn't as formal as dinner, where we would all eat together in the dining room. The dining room and kitchen were full, so we went out to the heated porch to eat. "I still can't believe you said that to your mom," I said to Liz as we sat down. "Hey, technically, it was the truth. I am tired of her constantly trying to degrade me in front of the family just because I am not in college, not because I need to get an education, but in her words, that's where I need to be if I want to find a good man to settle down with. All she wants of me is to be some housewife. Don't even get me started on all of the times she told me I was going to be going to hell," Liz said exasperatedly. "Yeah, technically it was the truth, but still crazy that you said it," I said. I took a bite of perfectly crispy bacon. "Relax, they wouldn't put something crazy like that past me doing, but it's not like they are going to think bad of the family's golden boy," Liz said. I hated whenever she called me that, and it usually would get to me enough for me to call her something back, but I was in too good of a mood to let her goad me into one of our usual arguments. I started to talk lower and hated getting serious so suddenly, but I didn't want to leave things vague between us. If I didn't ask, I would worry all day, and I would rather face the issue than leave myself wondering about it all day. "So, you don't regret anything about what happened last night?" I asked. Liz looked like she was about to say another joke, but she seemed to change my mind when she saw how serious I was. "I don't have any regrets about last night. I enjoyed it, and you did too. What is there to regret?" "Nothing, I just wanted to make sure things are still okay between us." "Don't worry , cuz, I think things are more than okay between us." I nearly jumped when I felt Liz's hand on my thigh. Liz smiled at me, that same smile that she gave me last night when she was about to blow me. Liz rubbed her hand on my thigh. "What does that mean?" I asked. "I think you can figure it out," Liz said and pulled her hand away. "Wait, did you just use my pants as a napkin?" "Yep," Liz said as she grabbed our empty plates and got up to take them to the kitchen. After breakfast, we did the gift exchange under the large fake Christmas tree, like we always did. I thought it was a little weird that we still did this tradition even though the youngest in the family were too old for it, but no one so far had started to have kids yet. It was messed up, but most of my family had thought Liz would be the first to have a kid, from my cousins and me, most likely in high school, according to Liz's mom, but Liz seemed smart and stubborn enough to not prove them right. I loved my family, but some of them were really fucked up when it came to Liz. I always tried to be the mediator and hold the family together when there were fights, but it took a lot out of me. I had to admit that even though we were too old for some of these traditions, I still enjoyed them, even if they were also annoying. I had to be so much for so many people, back at school that it was nice to come home and just focus on how my family saw me and on myself. The version of myself that my family saw, was also tough to uphold, but it was sometimes the closest version of myself. Family Memories on video. After the present exchange, my grandparents got out the scrapbooks and home movies and reminisced about past holidays and events. Liz sat next to me, cramming me into the edge of the sofa. With so many of us in the living room with the fireplace, all the seats were full. Other chairs had been carried over from the kitchen. Liz was pressed right against me, her familiar warmth a constant reminder of last night. As the trips down the well-traveled memory lane were trodden down yet again, Liz initially tried to act like she was bored and didn't care. Before long, she joined in the retelling of family events, usually to defend herself when a story was brought up about something bad that she had done. Still, I could tell that she enjoyed spending this time with her family. Those conversations were some of the only times Liz and her mom talked to each other without any malice, as they remembered their stories. I got a warm feeling in my stomach from all of this. Some things had changed, but they were still close enough for me to be able to slip back into the nostalgia. Throughout the day, Liz would do little things to remind me of the previous night. When it was just us or when no one was looking, Liz would whisper filthy things into my ear and pat me on the ass or grab at my crotch. I would get red in the face. Every time I tried to say something to her, another family member would always pop up, so I would have to stop what I was about to say. I would give Liz a look, telling her that I would say something later, but she would just smile or shrug. She always seemed her happiest when she was messing with me. We had Christmas dinner early. This time everyone sat together at the dining room table. My grandparents said grace, and then we started to eat. I was surprised that Liz and her mom managed to get along the whole day after their argument in the morning. This second party was even better than the one the night before. Everyone seemed to be in the holiday spirit. I wanted the day to last forever, so of course, time flew by. Before I knew it, family members started to go back to their hotels, and then everyone was off to bed again. Liz chose to stay longer and hang out with me again. We found ourselves on the couch again, watching TV together. We were originally sitting on opposite ends of the couch, but the moment the last of our family went up to go to bed, Liz scooted over and lay against me. Having her be close again, and us finally be alone, made my heart thump wildly from nerves. I wondered if anything was going to happen again between us, and if so, what? I hadn't felt this nervous around a girl in years. I wrapped an arm around her, and Liz snuggled up against me. To be continued. Based on a post by storyteller 19, for Literotica. Holidays With Cousin Liz: Part 2. Liz has a present for Chris. Based on a post by storyteller 19. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. We watched TV together for an hour, mostly in silence, which was rare for Liz, who loved to talk during TV and movies. Nearly the whole time, I was hard, but as turned on as I was by having Liz close again, I also didn't want to try and force things by starting something with her prematurely. It felt right to be holding Liz, and I didn't want to rush things. When it was nearly ten, Liz turned off the TV. She reached up and grabbed at my face and gently caressed it. I looked down at her, and we looked into each other's eyes. Her face was lit by the warm glow of the fireplace. She looked so beautiful. I leaned in and we kissed each other, slowly and sensually. This seemed so different from how she was last night, but not better or worse. Last night, we acted like we satisfied a hunger after starving, but on that second night together, we started out slower and more sweetly. We sat on the couch, making out for nearly a half-hour. Liz broke the kiss, and we looked into each other's eyes in the dimly lit room. Liz stood up and grabbed the fireplace poker. she stirred the remnant pieces apart and the fire transformed to a red glow. She adjusted the damper to a slight ventilation and put the tool away. Turning to me, she smiled, then grabbed my hand. I got up and then she led me into her bedroom. Liz closed the door and locked it. She went back to kissing me, pressing me against the wall. Once we were behind closed doors, she continued our liplock while she swiftly unbuckled, unsnapped, and unzipped my jeans. Swiftly she reached down into my bozers and quickly found my straining erection, and started jerking me off. I kissed down Liz's neck, sucking hard on it and making her moan. I kissed down her collarbone and the top of her chest, pulling at her Aerosmith T-shirt to kiss more of her chest. Liz pulled off her shirt, and I kissed her cleavage. She swiftly unhooked her bra and shrugged it off so that I didn't even have to pause on my way down to her nipples. I licked around her areola and then flicked my tongue across one of her nipples. As she started to moan, I latched onto her tit and began to suck on it, causing her to moan even louder. Liz ran her free hand through my hair. I took nearly all of a tit into my mouth while lapping against it with my tongue and then sucked on it, pulling on her sensitive nipples. I switched back and forth between each of her tits. Liz pulled her hand out of my pants and slipped them down further. Once they were loose, she pulled me back up to kiss her. She flicked her tongue across my lip, and then I met her tongue with mine, and we started to french kiss. Liz pulled my college sweatshirt shirt up and over my head. Once my shirt was on the floor, she sucked and nibbled my lip, and then started to kiss down my neck, rougher than she was last night. I was afraid that she was intentionally trying to leave me a hickey from how hard she was sucking on my neck. Even though it would be so stupid, I wanted some physical mark to prove to myself that this was happening with my beautiful cousin a second night in a row. Liz kissed her way down my chest. When she got down to my stomach, she pulled my pants the rest of the way down, along with my boxers. My rock-hard cock sprung up, nearly smacking Liz on the mouth as she dropped down to her knees. I slipped my feet out of my pants and kicked them away. Liz grabbed my pants and kicked them against the crack in the door, hiding that the lamp light was on. She wrapped her hand around my rigid phallus and held it at its base. Her other hand cupped under my ball-sack and fondled the two boulders within. I shivered in pleasure when Liz looked up at me with those beautiful eyes of hers and kissed the tip of my cock. She seemed to make out with it as she kissed, licked, and sucked on the top of my cock. Everything she did felt great, and being able to better see her doing it, made it feel even better. She skilfully rubbed her tongue along the sensitive frenulum while her lips locked tightly, to hold my glans ridge captive to her lustful intents. Then she leaned down and pressed her tongue onto my ball sack, licking against my balls. I hadn't been expecting her to do that, and I couldn't help but moan. Liz took one of my balls into her mouth and sucked on it. It made me feel vulnerable to her passions, but it also felt so good that it almost hurt. Liz knew just the right amount of pressure to use. She stroked me in long slow strokes as she sucked on my balls, first one, then the other, and then both at the same time. Most girls I had been with usually ignored my balls if they even gave me a blowjob, so I wasn't used to having so much time spent on them. After sucking on my balls for a few minutes, Liz put her lips back onto my cock, only this time she started to take me all the way into her mouth. In one quick motion, she took my entire length into her mouth. I moaned as she took me effortlessly into her throat. Liz held there for a minute and then slowly pulled back off my cock to catch her breath. My entire cock was coated in her saliva. Liz took a couple of breaths and then took me back into her mouth. She started to blow me quickly, her lips sliding up and down my cock effortlessly; her tongue rubbing me in a firm swallowing motion, over and over. Liz would alternate from looking down at what she was working on; and looking up at me while she blew me. When she looked me in the eyes, it turned me on so much, but it also seemed oddly intimate, and I felt slightly vulnerable as we looked at one another. After blowing me for a couple of minutes, Liz took me back all the way into her throat and held my cock there again. While I was deep inside of her, she rapidly stroked at the underside of my cock with her tongue. She kept me inside of her mouth for a minute and a half and then pulled back from my cock with a gasp. I thought she would go back to blowing me, but instead, Liz stood up, grabbed my cock, and walked towards the bed. Liz undid her pants with her other hand, and dropped them to the floor as she walked. She lay down on her back and pulled me on top of her, kissing me deeply, I straddled over her, our naked bodies pressed against each other. She reached down between us, grasped my cock, and started to rub it against her cunt lips. I froze up at the warmth and softness of her cunt. Liz nestled my cock between her cunt lips. "I want you inside of me," Liz breathed in between kisses as she started to move so that her cunt rubbed against the tip of my cock. "I want you, too," I said and then, in a moment of honesty, added, "I have wanted you for so long." "I know. Why do you think I have teased you so much all these years?" Liz said, raising her lips so that the head of my cock slipped ever so slightly more inside of her. "To annoy me?" I asked. "That's part of it." Liz laughed. "But the other reason is that I have wanted you too," Liz said. I had one last moment of doubt if I should do this or not. Liz nibbled my earlobe. "I want you to fuck me." There was so much desire in Liz's voice. I didn't know what to say to that, but I knew what I could do in response. Going All The Way. I inched forward to both enjoy this moment and make it easy in case Liz decided to change her mind. She kept on kissing me, so I continued to press forward. I slowly worked my way inside of her. She was tight and incredibly wet. It was hard not to just thrust all the way inside of her. Being inside of Liz felt so good for so many reasons. When I bottomed out inside of her, she let out a little gasp, her body arching in pleasure at the contact of me deep inside of her. I froze in place for a moment to take in the sensation of her cunt wrapped around my cock. After getting used to the fantastic feeling of her cunt I pulled nearly all the way out and then thrust back into her quickly. Liz let out a satisfied moan when she took me fully inside of her. I tried to start off slow, but Liz humped up against me, meeting my downward thrusts. It felt too good for us to take it slow, and before long, we were fucking quickly. She held onto my shoulders, holding her body up off the bed to give her better space to thrust back up against me, or she clenched at my ass, pulling me in deeper with each thrust. Fucking Liz felt so right. It seemed like we instantly knew what the other one was going to do before they did it. Every thrust was timed perfectly to ensure the highest amount of pleasure between us. It didn't take me long to work up a sweat, my body feeling both hot and cold. I was starting to get a little out of breath. If we kept up at this pace, I wouldn't last for as long. I was glad for the release from the previous night, without which I would have come instantly when I first entered her. Liz stopped humping up against me and pressed her hand against my chest. I got off her, and she pushed me down onto my back and straddled me. She held my erection in place just at the entrance of her cunt, and then she lowered herself, taking my entire cock in one quick motion. Her cunt felt even better in this position. Liz leaned down and kissed me as she started to rock her ass up and down, working my cock against the top of her snatch as she rode my cock. I laid there for a couple of minutes, enjoying the feel of Liz perfectly riding my cock. I grabbed her perfect ass and could feel her muscles tighten and loosen as she humped me. I rocked my hips in time with her. Before long, we worked our way back to the quick pace we had built up to before. Liz started to moan more and took shallow breaths as we continued to fuck. It felt good, but it was too good; I could feel each stroke bringing me closer to an orgasm. I didn't want to cum before Liz got off. There was no guarantee that anything would happen again between us. If we were going to break this taboo together, I wanted to make sure to make this the best sex possible. Without breaking the rhythm of riding my cock she pushed on my chest and straightened up so that she was straddling my cock. Immediately her cunt felt even tighter around my cock as she continued to ride me. We both moaned at the same time. Liz pulled up so that just the tip of my cock was inside of her, and then she slammed down, taking it all in at once before pulling right back up and doing it again. I grabbed at her hips and used them to help me better slide in and out of her. Every few strokes, when Liz would take me all the way inside of her, she wouldn't pull back off immediately; instead, she would do a little grinding against me so that my cock pressed even more against her cunt walls. After a few times of doing that, Liz added that grinding motion as she went up and down on my cock, making it feel even better with each stroke. I loved the way her tits bounced as she rode up and down on my cock, and the way her face would contort in pleasure when I timed a thrust perfectly or hit her in a new sensitive spot. I was getting too close to my orgasm, but Liz seemed to be breathing heavier. She started to rub at her clit while supporting herself by leaning back onto the bed with the other hand, so I hoped that she was close enough to cum before me. It gave me a better view of my cock disappearing in and out of her tight cunt with her leaning back. My cock was soaked in her juices and made me slide in and out of her with ease. She started to rock back and forth on my cock, and her fingers rubbed furiously against her clit. Liz's moans got so loud that I was afraid that we would wake up our family, but at this point, I was too far along to do anything to stop. "Awe Chris, that's it, fuck me harder," Liz said. I held onto her hips tighter and started to fuck her even harder. "Yes, yes, yes, fuck me," Liz moaned. I knew that if we kept up like this, our family would hear. I sat up and pulled Liz off me. "Why?" She asked in a huff. I pushed her down on all fours, moved around behind her, put my hands on her hips, and then entered her fully from behind in rough thrust. Liz let out a pleasure-filled, "Oh," as I bottomed out inside of her. Liz arched her ass up against me and pressed her face down onto the bed. I had dreamed about taking Liz from behind for so long, and now that I was close to cumming I made sure to enjoy my fantasy come to life. Liz started to hump back against me. I could hear her moaning loudly into the bedding. I was surprised by how much her muffled moans turned me on. I felt her place her hand back onto her clit, and she started to rub it again. I could hear Liz's muffled moans get even louder, and then she stopped humping against my cock. She pressed her cunt back against me, taking my cock inside of her and then rocking randomly against it as her orgasm hit. As she came, I stopped holding back. I thrust into her a few more times, and with a grunt, I started to cum inside her. I held onto Liz's hips to steady myself as my body went numb with pleasure as I shot my loads inside of her as we came together. Liz's random humps slowed down as her orgasm passed, and she slowly rode my cock. When she finally stopped, I pulled out of her and laid on the bed beside her, catching my breath. Liz stayed like that for a moment with her ass up in the air, and then she laid on her side facing me. We scooted towards each other and wrapped our arms around each other. We lay like that for some time. "That was;" I started to say but didn't know the words for it. Liz leaned forward and kissed me sweetly. "I know," she said. I lay there not believing what finally happened when suddenly a thought interrupted my bliss, and I nearly jumped out of bed. Liz placed one of my hands between her tits and cradled it there with her hands as I wrapped my other hand around her. Her heart was beating so fast, just like mine. "What?" Liz asked. "I came in you, I shouldn't have done that, if you get," Liz put a hand to my chest and a finger to my lips. "Calm down. I wanted you to do that, it makes it feel even better, and I am on the pill, so you don't have to worry," Liz said. "Oh, okay, good," I said, embarrassed by my outburst, and wrapped my arms back around Liz. "Merry Christmas," Liz said. "Yeah, the best merry Christmas," I said with a smile. A few minutes later, Liz got up and grabbed the towel that I had used earlier in the day. "I will be right back. I am going to go clean up," Liz said and walked out of the room. There was a bathroom right across from the bedroom, but I still thought it was crazy that Liz walked out of the room naked. I lay there with my fingers laced behind my head as I stared up at the ceiling, a smile on my face as I rode the post-sex endorphin rush. Liz stepped back inside and gently closed the door behind her. I watched as she walked towards me and climbed into bed, trying my best to ingrain the image of her naked body into my memory. Liz climbed into bed beside me, rested her head on my chest, and pressed her body against me. I held her with one arm and played with her hair. I knew she was awake for a time, but neither one of us said anything. Before long, I heard her start to snore loudly against my chest, so loud that it woke me up when I was nearly drifting off to sleep. I smiled and lay there for a few minutes, holding her and listening to her snore. Couch Time. When I was starting to drift back off to sleep, even with her snoring, I knew that I better move out to the living room before I fell asleep with Liz again. After that night's physical exertions, I doubted that I would be able to wake up again this morning. I carefully got out of bed to not wake Liz again, but I knew that she was a deep sleeper. My theory had always been that her snores made her deaf to the world as she slept. I pulled the blanket over her and tucked her in. After I got dressed, I kissed on the top of her head. I grabbed my blanket and managed to sneak a pillow again off the bed, and I went back out to the living room. It took me some time to fall asleep even though I was exhausted. I wanted nothing more than to go back into the room and sleep beside Liz but knew that I couldn't. After some tossing and turning, I finally fell asleep. I woke up to someone kissing me. I opened my eyes, and Liz beamed down at me. "Good morning," Liz said. It was still so early that the sun hadn't fully started to rise. "Good morning," I said. I sat up, and Liz climbed onto my lap. She wrapped her arms around my neck and held me tightly as she kissed me deeply. As we kissed, my fear that last night was going to be the only time we had sex evaporated. Liz kissed me like how you kissed a lover, and while I didn't know what exactly was going to happen in the future, I knew that the last couple of nights wouldn't be stand-alone events. "My family is on their way to say goodbye, and then I am going to head back to the hotel with them to pack up my stuff." "Oh," I said. Liz lived in Portland, several states away from her family. "So, my flight leaves later today, but I was wondering, since you don't have school for a few weeks, if you wanted to come and visit me," Liz asked, looking down as she spoke. I realized that she was nervous about asking me this. My fearless cousin Liz, nervous at asking me to visit her over my Christmas break. If I hadn't just had sex with Liz the night before, then seeing her nervous about something would have been the craziest thing that happened to me this weekend. I didn't say anything for a moment, and she looked up at me expectantly. "While I mean, I did have some plans," I said. When she started to pout, I couldn't go on with it, "Yeah, I can come to visit you." "You jerk, you were just stalling," Liz said as she threw her arms around me and gave me another huge kiss. I already had morning wood from when I woke up, and I got even harder as Liz started to dry hump me. I began to play with her tits when we heard footsteps coming down the steps. She jumped off me and gave me one last peck on the lips before running back into the guest room. I smiled. I was so used to seeing Liz be sarcastic and aloof; it was odd seeing this sweet side of her. I thought about that for a bit as I laid back down to look like I was still asleep. Liz took a shower first. When she emerged, she was wearing one of my T-shirts without asking, but I loved seeing her in it, so I didn't say anything to her. By the time I took a shower, more family had shown up, including Liz's. They stayed for a couple of hours to have a small breakfast and coffee before they were going to head back to the hotel and pack up. Liz and I spent every possible moment together. Not only did she give me her phone number to make sure we kept in better touch, but she also took my phone and added her Snapchat and Instagram accounts to my phone. I rarely used the apps, and I told her so, but she told me I better use them to talk to her; otherwise, I would regret it. I knew that we would see each other again soon, but I didn't want to see her leave. I walked her and her family to their rented car when it was time for them to drive back to the hotel. Our hug goodbye lingered until we reluctantly let go. As Liz was getting in the car, she checked her purse and said how her phone wasn't in it and that she must have left it in the guest room. She said she would be right back to her family and asked me to come with her to call her phone with mine. "So, where did you last see it?" I asked Liz when we walked into the room. "Right here in my bag," Liz said, holding up her phone. "Why did you say you didn't have it?" I asked her. "So that I could give you a proper goodbye," Liz said as she hugged again, but this time also kissed me. We kissed deeply for several minutes, neither one of us wanting to break off the kiss. Our kisses started to die down, and we tried to stop, but we kept on doing small kisses. We were both left panting when we finally pulled apart. "I want you so badly again," Liz said as she rested her head on my shoulder. "Me too. I don't want to see you go." "Promise you will visit me soon." "I promise," I said, already planning on seeing her as soon as possible. We walked back out to our gathered family. "Sorry it took so long. I had my phone on silent," Liz said as we walked back up. Liz gave me one last hug and then got into the car, and they drove away. I watched them leave, feeling an odd sense of loneliness. I went back to the guest room and laid in the same bed that we had had sleepovers in together when we were kids, the same bed that last night we had sex for the first time in. I pressed the pillow that she laid on last night against my face and inhaled her scent. I lay on my back and pressed the pillow to my face, and inhaled. I felt my phone go off in my pocket. I checked it, and Liz told me that they had made it back to the hotel. She asked me what I was doing, and I told her how I was lying in bed. She called me lazy, and I asked her how I could be both lazy and an overachiever at the same time? She somehow avoided answering me, even though I was confident that I was bringing up a good point. I stayed one more day at my grandparents with my family, and then the next day, I drove home. I wasn'

Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years on Prep!! We give our best tips on how to handle food pushers, cravings, prep diet, post show appetite and off season tricks to stay on track!!   Follow us on IG @preplifepodcast @glamgirlbikini @amyehinger @leemarie183   Watch on YouTube: Glam Girl Bikini   Join the team: https://www.glamgirlbikini.com/get-started/    1st Phorm Supplements we use: https://1stphorm.com/?a_aid=glamgirlbikini 

00:00 – 24:53 – Macy’s Day Parade, Colts-Texans thoughts, New Years eve bathrooms in NYC, Zach Lowe discusses why this season might actually be worth it for the Pacers, the Pacers center issues 24:54 – 37:36 – ESPN Colts reporter Stephen Holder joins us and discusses old Kanye West, the Daniel Jones fibula situation and his play the last three weeks, his grade for the defense against the Chiefs, his thoughts ahead of the Texans game, his Thanksgiving favorite and least favorite side dish, stuffing vs. dressing 37:37 – 49:29 – Peegs.com’s Matt Weaver joins us to preview the Hoosiers heading into the Bucket game against Purdue, what is the significance of Conference Championship games in 2025?, is the Heisman Mendoza’s to lose?, Indiana’s starting QB next year 49:30 – 59:26 - ISC’s Greg Rakestraw joins us to discuss being a finalist of the Indiana Sports Broadcasters of the Year, his busy week of sports, the big state championship storylines, Colts-Chiefs and looking ahead to the Texans gameSupport the show: https://1075thefan.com/the-wake-up-call-1075-the-fan/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

00:00 – 11:30 – Our final show of the week, blackout Wednesday, Colts-Texans, Kevin’s turkey hat 11:31 – 18:43 – Morning Checkdown 18:44 – 43:31 – Macy’s Day Parade, Colts-Texans thoughts, New Years eve bathrooms in NYC, Zach Lowe discusses why this season might actually be worth it for the Pacers, the Pacers center issues 43:32 – 1:05:38 – ESPN Colts reporter Stephen Holder joins us and discusses old Kanye West, the Daniel Jones fibula situation and his play the last three weeks, his grade for the defense against the Chiefs, his thoughts ahead of the Texans game, his Thanksgiving favorite and least favorite side dish, stuffing vs. dressing, Morning Checkdown 1:05:39 - 1:13:13 –Kevin put up the Christmas tree last night, his annual NFL Christmas ornament, Butler head coach Thad Matta joins us and discusses a successful trip at the Greenbrier Tip-Off, Finley Bizjack against opposing defenses, his time at Butler, his Thanksgiving turkey prep 1:13:14- 1:22:15 – James is nominated for Indiana Sportswriter of the Year, Kevin’s son wanted to put Ezekiel Elliott on the top of their tree, decorating the Christmas tree 1:22:16 – 1:45:18– Peegs.com’s Matt Weaver joins us to preview the Hoosiers heading into the Bucket game against Purdue, what is the significance of Conference Championship games in 2025?, is the Heisman Mendoza’s to lose?, Indiana’s starting QB next year, Morning Checkdown 1:45:19 – 1:56:13 – Creed halftime show, ISC’s Greg Rakestraw joins us to discuss being a finalist of the Indiana Sports Broadcasters of the Year, his busy week of sports, the big state championship storylines, Colts-Chiefs and looking ahead to the Texans game 1:56:14 – 2:03:34 – Our Colts-Texans picks, Thanksgiving thoughtsSupport the show: https://1075thefan.com/the-wake-up-call-1075-the-fan/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Martin Shaw, President at Wounded Heroes Australia, spoke with Mark Levy about his ongoing efforts to continue raising awareness and support for our nation's veterans. With Christmas and New Years coming up, the calls for help are rising and the number of veterans Australia is sadly losing is also rising.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Good Day Health, Doug Stephan welcomes back Elizabeth Miller to discuss one of the most trusted natural weight-loss supplements on the market: Calotren.Unlike trendy quick fixes or stimulant-heavy diet pills, Calotren focuses on sustainable results by working with your body as you sleep. Taken at bedtime, it supports your natural overnight repair cycle to help:Improve sleep qualityReduce joint painSupport lean muscle retentionBoost metabolism and daytime energyGently tone and tighten the skinAs we head into the season of sweets and comfort foods—Halloween candy, Thanksgiving feasts, and December's parade of cookies and pies—Calotren can help you stay on track. Users report fewer cravings, more energy, and steady inch and weight loss that lasts.Calotren naturally rebuilds lean muscle tissue, supports joint repair, and promotes better, more restorative sleep. With an 86% success rate in the first 90 days, most people notice improved sleep by the end of month one, followed by consistent fat and inch loss in months two and three — without the rebound weight gain common with other methods.Doug and Elizabeth also dive into the rising popularity of prescription weight-loss injections and explain why Calotren pairs safely with them. In fact, maintaining lean muscle, stable energy, and healthy skin elasticity may make Calotren an essential complement to those medications.To learn more, visit TopLoss.com and explore their interactive product page, or call 1-800-325-4366 with any questions.When you're ready to order, select “Shop Radio Sale” and use promo code DOUG at checkout for free shipping. Start your Calotren journey today! Website: GoodDayHealthrShow.com Social Media: @GoodDayNetworks

➢ DM “Black Friday” to➢ Follow us on Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/colossusfit/?hl=enWelcome to Motivation Monday, where every Monday we answer all of your questions and have some real talks about life & fitness & get you fired up for the week! In this episode we talk about why workout classes suck, how to have all day energy and if we're doing a New Years challenge.(0:28)- Question 1- I have a friend who refuses to lift weights with me because she says she likes her workout classes. She hops around from place to place doing whatever is trendy, she is always working out but I feel like she sees no results. How can I get through to her?(19:05) Josh quote: “You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” — Marcus Aurelius(17:40) - Kyle quote: “Intentions don't matter. Actions do.”(21:10) - What has us excited or intrigued:(25:55) - Client shoutout: Krista(29:30) Question 2- I get SOOO tired at 3pm. I just feel like I checkout and want to nap or just end up watching tv all day. How can I have more energy during the day and how do you make your nights productive?(39:15) Question 3- Are you guys doing a new years challenge?Thanks for listening! We genuinely appreciate every single one of you listening.Email me/ submit a mailbox Monday question contact@colossusfitness.com➢Follow us on instagram @colossusfit➢Apply to get your Polished Physique:  https://colossusfitness.com/

If you are planning a Walt Disney World trip for the 2025 holiday season, this episode answers the most common listener questions we are getting right now. Matt and Chip break down the newest changes at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, how to plan park days around Christmas parties, whether MultiPass is still worth it during holiday hours, the best free Christmas activities for families, what crowds look like the week between Christmas and New Years, and how to prepare for Florida's unpredictable winter weather.   If you want real, practical advice from two dads who do this every week, this is the episode to watch.   In today's episode, you will learn:   The new changes at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique   What Disney removed, what the new packages include, and whether the experience is still worth it for girl dads in 2026.   Disney World holiday strategy that saves your sanity   How to plan around Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and Jollywood Nights, which days have the lowest wait times, and how to avoid the biggest holiday mistakes.   Why Premier Pass is selling out at four hundred twenty nine dollars   What that price spike really means for families and the future of line skipping in the parks.   The honest truth about Epic Universe   Why wait times are out of control, why Express Pass is becoming essential, and the simple mistake that ruins most first time visits.   The best free Christmas activities at Disney World   Resort decorations, gingerbread houses, the Disney Springs Christmas Tree Stroll, and how to meet Santa without a park ticket.   How to prepare for Florida winter weather   The temperature swings that surprise most families, what to pack, and the simple trick that prevents an emergency trip to Disney Springs for clothes.   Listener questions answered   Holiday crowds, MultiPass during party days, Christmas week warnings, and more.   If you want real, practical, family centered Disney and Universal planning advice without the gimmicks, this is your episode.   Chapters 01:05 What changed at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in 2026 04:20 Is Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique still worth it 09:00 Disney Cruise Line updates and discounts 12:45 Epic Universe warning Should families visit without Express Pass 15:55 Why is Premier Pass selling out Is it worth the price 20:40 Listener Question How to plan park days during Christmas party season 24:50 Listener Question Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party vs Jollywood Nights 28:55 Listener Question The best free holiday activities at Disney 34:20 Listener Question Is Christmas week really that crowded 38:35 Listener Question How to handle Florida winter weather swings 42:20 Final thoughts and trip planning tips   Helpful Links   Get a free Disney or Universal vacation quote! Your trip deserves expert planning and it costs you nothing. ➡️ https://www.adventuresofadisneydad.com/get-a-quote   Read the latest Disney planning guides ➡️ https://www.adventuresofadisneydad.com/   Join the newsletter for weekly tips and deals ➡️ https://www.adventuresofadisneydad.com/

Natasha's insomnia journey began during the long grind of the pandemic. Life was full, intense, and stretched thin. She and her husband were working and their young son needed to take school classes online. When their nanny suddenly stopped coming, Natasha brushed it off at first. But that first sleepless night turned into another… and then another. Before she knew it, she was caught in a spiral she couldn't make sense of. Like many people who've always slept well, she didn't expect sleep to suddenly feel impossible. She tried going to bed earlier. She tried teas, essential oils, supplements, white noise, antidepressants, anti-anxiety medication — anything she could find and all the things the internet tells you “should” help. Each attempt only made her more aware of how badly she wanted sleep and how far away it felt. Her nights became long stretches of alertness mixed with exhaustion — awake while everyone else slept — and her days were filled with worry about the next night. Over time, insomnia started to shape her choices. She avoided travel. She canceled early meetings. She relied on her husband sharing a bed with her for sleep to have any chance of happening. Insomnia slowly became the center of her days. The turning point didn't come from a pill or a hack. It came when every one of her “solutions” stopped working — and she realized she couldn't keep building her life around avoiding insomnia. That moment of exhaustion and honesty pushed her to look for a different approach. When we started working together, Natasha began noticing something important: even after a bad night, the next day could go better than she expected. And sometimes, after a good night, the day didn't feel great at all. That simple observation helped loosen the grip insomnia had on her. She also began changing her actions in small, meaningful ways — not to fix sleep, but to take her life back. She scheduled breakfast meetings again. She made evening plans without checking the clock. She traveled. She stopped organizing her days around sleep anxiety. And she created a calmer routine at night by watching shows she enjoyed instead of lying in bed trying to force sleep. Today, Natasha has her life back. Sleep isn't a project. Nights aren't battles. Insomnia no longer runs her life. Natasha runs her own life and sleep takes care of itself. Click here for a full transcript of this episode. Transcript Martin: Welcome to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. My name is Martin Reed. I believe that by changing how we respond to insomnia and all the difficult thoughts and feelings that come with it, we can move away from struggling with insomnia and toward living the life we want to live. Martin: The content of this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, disorder, or medical condition. It should never replace any advice given to you by your physician or any other licensed healthcare provider. Insomnia Coach LLC offers coaching services only and does not provide therapy, counseling, medical advice, or medical treatment. The statements and opinions expressed by guests are their own and are not necessarily endorsed by Insomnia Coach LLC. All content is provided “as is” and without warranties, either express or implied. Martin: Okay. Natasha, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to come onto the podcast. Natasha: You are welcome, Martin. Thanks for having me. Martin: It’s great to have you on. Let’s start right at the very beginning. When did your sleep problems first begin and what do you feel caused those initial issues with sleep? Natasha: I think it was 2022 and we were still very much within the pandemic. And so there was of course like bad news all around, but I wasn’t necessarily stressed by that. All our children were outta school in the sense that all the schools were shut down. Natasha: At that point, my like 5-year-old or 6-year-old son, he was having to do his online classes and the day was just relentless, right? Because me, my husband, we were both working, we didn’t have any help at home. And then he had these online classes. So I had found this sort of nanny person who could help out during the day so that we could get our work done. Natasha: And I think she basically just called in sick. And I think like now, and this is all in hindsight, but I think it was some sort of like anxiety from that. And she wasn’t being very specific about whether she was, she had COVID or whether she was just, she said, I’ve hurt my foot. And, I think it was basically the fact that there was a lot of uncertainty about when she would be back and whether she would be back. Natasha: And I couldn’t sleep that night when she said, I’m not coming tomorrow. And, I think that was fine because the next day rolled around, but then the day after that, again, I sort of couldn’t fall back to sleep. And you know what happens when you haven’t slept one night and you feel like you have this huge day to get through the next day you try to overcompensate. Natasha: So I think I probably try to get into bed really early and I couldn’t fall asleep. And then I think I probably still just got out and read a book and got on with it. Natasha: So the days had been quite difficult to get through with a small child and work. I think by the third day I started noticing, I suddenly noticed the fact that I hadn’t slept very well and that I wasn’t being able to fall asleep. Natasha: And so the third night, I just really couldn’t sleep at all because I’d become very attentive to the fact that I was having this difficulty and that I had to. And so I think that’s what set it off. I don’t think there was anything more than that. Once it got started it just became this kind of vicious spiral of crashing pretty much after two or three days of sleeping very badly. Natasha: And then feeling slightly recovered the next day only to not be able to go back to sleep that night. And yeah, I think I started paying so much attention to the fact that I was having difficulty sleeping, that it was just getting harder and I think it, it turned into a huge full-blown problem. Martin: I’m gonna guess that there’s been other times in your life where you might have got a little bit less sleep or a lot less sleep than normal. And then things figured themselves out and sleep got back on track. What do you think was different this time around? Natasha: So I think a few things might have been different. Natasha: One was of course, that I think the pressure in the pandemic was very high on productivity and just somehow getting through the day. So not just, you had a lot of things to do at work. You had very little help and I had a child and I think also because there was this idea that there was some degree of latitude with your partners. Natasha: If for some reason you are sick, then he can pick up the slack more than what he’s normally doing. But I think he was completely slammed as well. As a family I think we’d become very aware of just how we were stretched beyond like capability. Natasha: So I think maybe that was one like predisposing condition that it, it made the need for rest so much higher. And therefore I think there was some kind of a, psychological reaction to the fact that when you thought that you really needed to rest, you weren’t being able to. I also do think, I do think it maybe had something to do with COVID because I did get COVID early 2022. Natasha: And I think I got, ever since then I’ve had COVID twice. And every time I’ve had COVID I’ve had a little bit of difficulty with sleep and a little bit of hyper arousal. So I, I think maybe it was a combination of these two things. But normally now if that happens, it just resolves itself because I don’t sit and, I don’t get too upset about it. Natasha: But at that time, perhaps, maybe some sort of like the physiological part was there, and then there was this huge psychological reality. Martin: Would you say that because it was such a stressful period it felt like maybe the stakes were higher than they were in the past. So as a result, you put more pressure on yourself to get sleep back on track. Martin: There was more trying, more effort, more pressure. Natasha: Yeah. I think there’s also one of the things I have realized and listening to your podcast, it’s something that I’ve observed. There are a lot of people who say that they develop insomnia. Many of them say that they were excellent sleepers. Natasha: They were brilliant sleepers before and they could sleep anywhere, anytime. And that was me as well. I could sleep anywhere, anytime. But the other thing is also that I think there are people who say that, I can’t function without sleep. I need my sleep. I love my sleep. Natasha: And there are others who are like, yeah, I can get on with it. It’s fine. I think you and I feel like if you’re the type who has told themselves for years that, oh, I can’t function without sleep, which is what I used to tell myself, and that’s why I used to sleep very adequately because I’d be like, oh, I need my nine hours and I need like my naps in between. Natasha: I feel like if you’ve spent years telling yourself that you can’t function without sleep and then a stressful situation comes that requires you to compromise with sleep or where your sleep gets affected, perhaps you are more susceptible to then developing anxiety around it, right? Because you’ve told yourself that you don’t know how to kind of function without it. Natasha: So maybe it’s also personality or like prior mindsets. Martin: It’s like the more important we deem something in our lives, quite naturally, the more we’re gonna focus on it. And if it deviates from whatever we want it to be doing that’s gonna immediately generate a lot of concern. Martin: And where we get trapped with insomnia and sleep is really, it’s beyond our direct and permanent control. So it, it kind of backfires, that additional effort. We might not be able to control the thoughts, we might not be able to change the fact that we see it as something important. Martin: It’s okay to see it as something important, but it’s our actions around that. The more we try to make sleep happen the more we can end up struggling with it. Natasha: Yeah, and I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that now there is so much literature and all the things you can do to improve your sleep, right? Natasha: So there is this perpetuation of this illusion that somehow sleep is something you can entirely control and engineer. And I think I was doing so much of that as well. Natasha: You go through this strange, five stages of grief or something through that period of night where, you just, at some point you’re very angry. At some point you’re very depressed with your situation because it’s also this, it is a strange experience of being wide awake when the whole world is sleeping. Natasha: It’s different from being a night owl and it’s different from someone who’s, voluntarily working or relaxing or gaming or whatever. Natasha: You are alert and exhausted. So because you’re alert, you can’t go to sleep and because you’re exhausted, you can’t actually do anything productive. So you’re literally just sitting awake and not being able to do anything and not being able to relax. Natasha: And I think that in that whole process you do end up, of course you start googling feverishly and I’ve done everything right. I think over the last two years, before, before I met you, I think I’ve done everything I must have done. Like the primrose oil, the lavender, the magnesium, the chamomile tea, the Yeah, like I think the white noise and I’ve done, I think you try everything and the more things you’re throwing at it, the worse it’s getting. Natasha: And I think every failure after you’ve tried something and that failure is even harder to reconcile. But some of that comes from the fact that you’re reaching out for answers into Google and Google is giving you some solutions. It’s not telling you that, the way to, to get to sleep is just to let it go. Natasha: It’s not telling you that, it’s actually telling you, do this, and then you start doing it. Martin: The information out there tends to be about doing more, it’s, if there’s a problem, do this. And with sleep, it’s all about doing less. If anyone has a recollection in their own experience of a time when sleep wasn’t an issue or a concern, what did you do to experience sleep in that way? Martin: And it was nothing. It was going to bed. It was getting out of bed, living your life, and it just took care of itself. But then we just exposed to this proliferation of advice and information and hacks and gadgets and gizmos and this and this. And when we are feeling stuck it’s completely understandable that we are gonna be looking for a solution. Martin: And almost everything in life, the solution is do this or do more, put more effort in. Try harder. That sleep is one of those outliers. And we can so easily through no fault of our own, get tangled up in that quick sound, so the more we fight it. The more we struggle with it, the more we try and escape that quick sound, the deeper we find ourselves sinking. Natasha: Yeah. You said this and I think I, this is printed in my brain because I remember in one of our first sessions you said exactly this, you said that most things in life respond well to effort, but sleep doesn’t, sleep does not respond well to effort. And because we all have such a bias for action and effort, you think that if there’s something I can do. Natasha: What happened to me was like one night I didn’t, I think again, my husband, I woke him up at 4:00 AM because I was like, I think I’m having a heart attack. Natasha: Because, ’cause you are just palpitating now obviously your body’s completely dysfunctioning because you’re exhausted and you haven’t slept. And so I was sweating and I was feeling this like pinch in my heart and he got really worried. Natasha: So I said, okay, let me just go and buy sleeping pills. And I didn’t know what that was. So I went to this pharmacy and I was like do you have sleeping pills? And they were like you need a prescription for that. Because in India you don’t need a prescription for a lot of things. A lot of things you get over the counter, but hang on, this one is one that we do need a prescription for. Natasha: So then I started texting you can only get prescriptions from, obviously a licensed doctor or a psychiatrist. And I didn’t know any, so I texted one, a friend saying, do you know? And then she said yes. And so she connected me with somebody. But they said that you have to, you have to have a session with a therapist. Natasha: For her to for them to evaluate you. And I was desperate, right? Because I hadn’t slept all night. And I said, listen, I just, I need something to knock me out and I don’t need therapy. I don’t need a therapist. I’m fine. Literally the only problem in my life right now is that for some reason I’ve developed this mysterious inability to sleep. Natasha: And, but they of course, had the responsible practice was that I should talk to a therapist. So I did. And of course, at the end of the hour she was very sweet and she said it does seem you are fairly self-aware and your relationship with your partner is very good and everything is fine and maybe you just need medication. Natasha: And I was almost like, yes, I told you so then she put me through a psychiatrist. And that person, but that was the interesting thing, right? When I went to the psychiatrist and it was, she spoke to me literally for 10 minutes, and this was on Zoom because we were still in the pandemic. Natasha: And yeah, she was like okay, are you anxious about something? And you, you mentioned one or two things because if you are living life and if you’re adulting, of course you’re anxious about a few things. So I said a few things and she was like, okay, great. And here’s an antidepressant, which kind of surprised me because I’d never taken antidepressants before. Natasha: And I have studied psychology, so I do understand SSRIs. So I asked her, I said, oh, why are you giving me an antidepressant? She was like basically this is, it’s just going to relax you. So I said, fine. Natasha: So I took that, but I wasn’t happy about it because I wasn’t happy taking it. And I think what also what happened was I started taking the antidepressant for a couple of weeks. And predictably. So I slept okay on the first couple of times because it was a sort of a placebo, right? You had this like safety feeling that I’m taking a pill and I’m fine. Natasha: And then I think I was traveling to Delhi for work and it, I had my pill and it didn’t work. And I was up all night and I had to work the entire day. And then the same thing happened the next day. I came back to the hotel, I was exhausted and I was like, I’m going to just absolutely crash. Natasha: I think I fell asleep in the cab on the way to the hotel, but I popped my pill. I got into bed and I couldn’t sleep. And then I was like, okay, this medicine is not working. So I remember being, that, that makes you really worried because you see, I went to a doctor gave me something and now this is not working. Natasha: So then I came back and then I tried different things. When I got back home, I remember that night I went to bed and my husband Suraj was sitting next to me, and that was very comforting. So then began this whole era of me saying, okay, I need you to sleep in the bed with me, right? Natasha: You have to be in bed with me. So whether you are reading or whatever you’re doing, you need to be in bed. Because I wasn’t sure the medication was working. And so I stopped taking that, but then I didn’t have any other crutch, so I said, okay, you have to be in bed with me. And so he would have to get into bed and sometimes he likes to sleep a bit later and I get tired sooner. Natasha: It was adding these layers of something is wrong with me to my sense of self, right? Because you’re like, first you can’t sleep, then you, now you need your husband to come and lie with you. And you’re affecting his life as a result. Natasha: And then I became very averse to traveling as a result. So I said, I don’t want to, I don’t wanna go anywhere because I I don’t know, I, I don’t wanna sleep alone, so I don’t wanna go on business trips and I don’t want to go, but more than business trips, because those couldn’t be avoided. Natasha: I was almost like, I don’t wanna go on personal instead of holidays with my girlfriends, and I just don’t wanna go on a holiday with somebody where if I’m not sure where I would have to sleep alone by myself. So I was supposed to go for this hike and we would go, we were gonna sleep in a dorm. And I was so terrified of the idea of being like, absolutely wide awake at 3:00 AM in a dormitory full of girls, I don’t know, which was not me at all. Natasha: ’cause that, that I was not that type of person ever. So I opted out of that. I said, no, I’m not gonna do that. And it just started adding up right where I stopped making evening plans because I said, oh, if it’s too late, and then I get home late and then it I won’t have enough time to wind down and get to bed. Natasha: So I think all of this was happening and even when I was traveling. In 2022, I remember we went for this, I had this huge event in September or so. And it had been like eight months since my issues with sleep. But I had to go to Bombay for this event for a whole week. And my plan was that I’m basically going to night cap it through I’m going to have a drink every night and then I’m going to somehow knock myself out and just get through the entire week. Natasha: And that’s exactly what I did. Which, in hindsight, that’s, it’s just such a terrible strategy. But there was no other way to imagine being able to do things like this. So I feel like this was carrying on and I had sort of, because I’d already been to a psychiatrist, one I once, I didn’t consider going back to anyone because what I was very aware of was that I really wasn’t struggling with anything in my life in a big way other than sleep, so I. And that was the other thing. ’cause again, anytime you ever told anyone or even hinted to somebody that you find it hard to sleep, the first question they’re like, oh, are you stressed out about something? Or or and that can almost start grating you. ’cause you’re like, no, I’m not stressed about anything. Natasha: I’m not stressed, I’m not per se stressed and I, but this thing that, you’re losing sleep because there must be some something underlying and something subconscious and you’re like, no. The only thing that’s conscious, subconscious and all pervasive is sleep anxiety. And I think the fact that sleep anxiety, again, is its own category of anxiety, of, it’s a type of anxiety that perhaps happens. Natasha: And there are no other underlying hidden, Freudian reasons for why you’re not being able to sleep. You’re really, you’re just having some, you’ve developed a strange relationship with sleep and your bed. So you are passing out on your couch and then the minute you hit the bed you are like wide awake, so I think this thing was something that I have only processed a little bit in hindsight and through, conversations with you and understanding this whole situation. But like throughout 2022, it was just, it was some, it was a hack, just hacking my way through it. And because things were working out really well with having my partner in bed with me I was like, okay, fine, this is fine. Natasha: How bad is it? And even through 23, I think like 23 actually was very stable because like I said, whenever I was traveling, I had become that person where I said, okay, I’m not gonna sleep when I travel. But even then, I think there was. There was a, I remember again, I went for a team retreat and I was up the entire night, like the sun came up and I just got outta bed and we all had, and this was this big strategy retreat, which you had to talk a lot of strategy. Natasha: And that was the, and I was confused about whether I should tell my teammates that I didn’t sleep all night. And so I, but I decided to, ’cause I said I can’t, I’d come to that point where I was like, this is just who I am. This is going to be forever. So I have to start telling people that I find it hard and I’m, I have lovely colleagues and they’re all wonderful people. Natasha: So I said, maybe I can trust them and I could just tell them that I couldn’t sleep all night, because, if I’m spacing out in the middle of the dates, it’s only fair that they know. And I did tell them and and they were very kind about it, but I think I was so tired. Natasha: At the end of that day, I remember, and I was so terrified, Martin, that I was not gonna be able to sleep again. And so I actually asked my one of my teammates who I’m really close with, and I really like her. And I told her, I said, and this is gonna sound very strange ’cause we were all living in a house. Natasha: So it was nice. It was like a large, huge villa. And I said, is it okay if I sleep with you? And she was like, yeah, sure. And she was very sweet about it. And so I actually had went and I slept in her room with her. And I think that there were parts of me that was so embarrassed by this, but also so helpless about it and feeling like what is happening. Natasha: Whenever you tell people they, I mean they are sympathetic, but either they don’t understand or it’s the sort of you’re stressed. Natasha: And again, I think I was talking to someone and they recommended the psychiatrist and this therapist to me. So then I went to her and she prescribed me a whole other set of SSRIs and anti-anxiety medication. And again, I took it for a while and it does make you feel slightly different. So I think I started feeling a little bit. Not okay on some of that medication. Natasha: Especially, I think the worst experience which I’ve had is taking medication, going to bed, not being able to sleep, and then you are waking up with half, slept with this half digested medicine in your brain and you’re just getting through the next day because you know you, ’cause you have to. Natasha: All of us end up going through all these rabbit holes because there is no direction and the experts are actually giving you wrong advice and Google is definitely leading you in the wrong direction. And then you’re just stuck with all of the, this sense of helplessness and this huge sense of the fact that something is broken inside you. Natasha: And it’s funny, because I do actually work in the mental health field and there is a lot that’s said about the stigma associated with depression, with anxiety because even though there has been so much awareness building and conversation still, if your team members or someone in your organization is going through depression and they’re not able to perform, very few people can actually come and say, this is what’s happening to me when it’s happening. Natasha: They can talk about it once they have figured it out and gotten over it. And in a strange way, like insomnia is like that because if I hadn’t slept all night and if I slept at 4:00 AM and I woke up at seven and I had a call at nine 30 in the morning and I had to cancel it, or I had a call at seven in the morning, which I had to cancel. Natasha: I couldn’t be like, I’m sorry, I have to cancel this call because I couldn’t sleep all night. I would say I’m sick, or something else. But it sounded absurd to see, it almost sounds like you’re not a, you’re not a capable functioning adult if you say oh, I couldn’t sleep. And I think that sense that something that everybody else is just doing so effortlessly and everybody else is just doing without thinking and you’re just not able to do. Natasha: And it’s so basic. It’s, I would look at my son he’d just pass out. It feels so basic. I think that was the hardest part, like now in hindsight, right? It was of course the tiredness and all of the other things. But this, the psychological experience of going through insomnia, I think is very difficult. Martin: I completely agree with you. Just the way you were describing it there, you could tell how insomnia or sleep just started to become more of your identity. It was almost like taking over more of who you are. And in a way you were just losing this independence, this independence, this sense of agency that you have over your own life, because so many of your actions became geared towards protecting sleep, avoiding insomnia compensating for difficult nights, all of which is completely understandable. Martin: And when all of that stuff just doesn’t feel like it’s proving to be a long-term solution, it can then feel really mysterious, right? Martin: It can feel like there’s something uniquely wrong. There’s something going on here that is different to what other people might be experiencing, and then we can get all of that kind of self-judgment and maybe some shame and some embarrassment and the negative self-talk, and we can be really harden ourselves that just piles it on and makes things even more difficult. Natasha: Yeah. I don’t wanna start like blaming, Google and blaming the sort of sleep culture, but I think the thing is that scientists the people who are closest to the science are the most humble about the conclusions. But the health industry is the exact opposite, right? There are just lots of claims and there’s lots of stuff. Natasha: And now the algorithms just push it to you because for sure at some point my algorithm figured out that I had, and probably very quickly that I was anxious about this. Natasha: So everything that I was being prompted. Was just like this about sleep and that about sleep and women in sleep and something and constantly actually the reverse, which was the extreme benefits. And so everything from like longevity to dementia to osteoporosis, every single thing is linked to sleep. Natasha: And of course it is, in the sense that, but it’s also linked to diet and it’s also linked to happiness and it’s also linked to genetics. And it’s linked to a hundred thousand things. Natasha: Once the algorithm finds you and finds your weakness, it starts then. And then I actually actively stopped looking at any of that content. ’cause I very quickly realized what it would do to me, right? In the sense that it would just make you feel even worse about where you were. And I think that, that’s one big part of sleep anxiety as well, because you are convinced that you are like hurting yourself. Natasha: You’re convinced that you’re becoming very unhealthy and that you’re going to die, because because you’re not being able to sleep well and that, your brain is going to deteriorate very quickly and everything is just gonna deteriorate. Natasha: I do know people who sleep badly and they run marathons and they just it doesn’t matter, like they just live their lives despite the fact that they sleep badly and they continue to sleep badly and they continue to live their lives. But I do think that there are others. And then me especially I was not being able to reconcile these two things, that I would not sleep well, but I would just get on with my life. I think the, the sense of the control and the pop science was also hurting quite a bit. Martin: When we have a problem, we wanna look for a solution, right? And there’s just so much out there. And I think there is also a lot of misinformation and misleading information out there because that’s what gets the attention. If someone writes an article that just said Sleep, it’s important, you can’t control it. Martin: No one’s gonna read that, right? But if someone comes up with a headline that says 12 Sleep Hacks that guarantee eight hours of sleep, or 12 things you can do tonight to prevent cancer ever showing up in your life, loads of people are gonna read that. Natasha: Over those two years I did lots, I accomplished lots. A huge part of life was continuing. Natasha: But the point was that I was not entirely myself and that’s the bit that I was missing. It had become a new mutation on my identity, the sleep thing, right? So 99% of my identity was still the same, but there was this new 1% that had just emerged from somewhere. Natasha: You’re not accepting your situation. You’re quite distressed by it. That’s another thing that comes with insomnia. Martin: It becomes more powerful the more we try to resist it. You can find yourself acting in ways that don’t really reflect who you are or who you want to be. Natasha: Actions are a powerful way to signal to your brain what, where your attitude lies, so I think that sometimes you can’t just intellectualize your way out of a problem. Natasha: Like sometimes you have to change the way you’re behaving. In that sense, this kind of almost subterranean signal to your brain that your attitude towards something has changed because now your body’s doing different things than what it was doing. Martin: You’d already tried so many things. You had a strategy, a roadmap that you were following with kind of mixed success. Martin: What made you think it would be productive or there would be an opportunity here for you to get something from us working together? Natasha: What happened in 2024, which is when we met, was that everything just started failing. And I don’t know why necessarily. I think we went on this holiday for New Years in 20 23 we went to this holiday. Natasha: And at that holiday, our entire day routine was starting very late. And we were not sleeping before 12 or 1230 every single night as a family. And I think because we’d lived that kind of routine for about two weeks, when we got back home early 24 I think I was like, I have to go to work, so I should get to bed at night. Natasha: And obviously your body was in attuned to sleeping at nine. And and then that, and this time I went to bed. My husband and I went to bed. He promptly fell asleep. I don’t know his bo his body can sleep as much anytime. I dunno, it just doesn’t seem to bother him. But I couldn’t. And then there was that like, oh shit moment, right? Natasha: That, oh my God, my last standing hack has stopped working. And there was all this legacy of failure as well in the past. And so then I think basically I went through a couple of weeks where I, it was exactly as bad as your peak struggles where you’re just not sleeping before you had figured out your placebo or your hack or your safety behavior before any of that, ’cause once I figured some of those out in 22 and 23, then there was a whole period of stability. But again, I was back in this tumult and we had to go for, to celebrate a function for the same sweet teammate of mine who had shared her hotel bed with me. And she, her sister was getting married and we went and we flew to another town for this. Natasha: And again, basically all of us landed. We got to the hotel really late. Everyone’s exhausted, husband and child pass out. I don’t sleep at all. At 5:00 AM I think he woke up to get a glass of water. And he saw, and I was reading and he said, oh, why are you up? And I said, I haven’t slept all night. And so I think for him, he was like, oh my God. Natasha: What is, this is bad. Because, I think he could really empathize saying You must be exhausted. And I was tired and I was just, I was so upset because I’d come for this wedding and I’d been really looking forward to it. And I didn’t feel like participating in anything because like literally my body, my brain, everything was hurting. Natasha: So he then said we should go to, he found some sleep clinic and we went there when we got back. When we got back home again, it was the same, it was the same thing. So again, I went to the sleep clinic, the doctor prescribed me some other, like tricylic or some other cocktail of drugs. And even as the doctor was talking, and this was like a neurologist who literally told me, and I have no issues saying that, this is what he said to me. Natasha: He was like, oh, that’s really strange. Oh, you should be able to sleep, but if you’re not, here are some pills. And if these don’t work then you’re going to be on sleeping pills your whole life. There’s no other solution. He said that. He was like, oh, come back to me in a month because if this doesn’t work, then, and he literally shook his head and said, oh, then there’s no hope. Natasha: And then you’re just gonna have to be having sleeping pills for the rest of your life. And even as he was seeing it, I think something in me just got really pissed off. I was like, this is ridiculous. He didn’t even listen to my story. Natasha: It was just like, oh, you have sleep problems? Okay, here you go, here’s some drugs. So as soon as we got home, I told Suraj, I was like I don’t think he, he doesn’t know what he is talking about at all. I have actually had this situation for the last two years and I don’t think he knows what he’s saying. Natasha: And Suraj of course, trying to be the very like, supportive person. He said no, you should not. Don’t reject the doctor’s thing, just take the medication. You will be fine. And sure as hell, it didn’t work. Like after three, four days it stopped working. Natasha: And then basically I think I, in one of my, fever dreams at 2:00 AM 3:00 AM like as I was awake I was just typing into Spotify ’cause I was listening to different podcasts to to keep myself entertained at night. Natasha: And I was like, oh, there must be some podcast. Somebody must have talked about insomnia. And I typed that into Spotify, and then I found your podcast, and then I started listening to it. And Martin, for me, I was so desperate by then, I was so tired and so desperate that I said that I won’t even bother listening to all these episodes. Natasha: And, piecing together the wisdom. I said, I’m just going to write to this person and I’m just gonna directly reach out to him. Because at that point, I was very sure that I really needed like somebody to work with me, somebody to talk to. I couldn’t do some sort of self-paced, self-help. I really had to feel like I had shared my side of the story with somebody and then they understood and then they were going to kinda help me. Natasha: So that’s how I actually, I found you. And that’s what brought me. So in some sense, it was the ultimate failure of everything that got me here. Martin: When we started working together what kinda concepts did we explore or what kind of changes did you make that were different, that you feel helped you move forward and start emerging from this struggle? Natasha: One of the things that I really appreciated was that you actually asked me to list out my own strengths, right? And I think when you did that, one of the things that you noted was the fact that I do actually lead with intellect to some extent. And so for me, being able to understand like psychologically and cognitively understand things. Natasha: And once I see them in a new light, I think that’s very powerful. So that was the first thing where I think I still, this was like, I still remember our first conversation right where you said that sleep doesn’t respond to effort. And that line, it just almost like immediately, I think I just completely changed my behavior almost immediately in response to that. Natasha: I remember you mentioned in the early days itself was the fact that you can sleep really badly so you can have a bad night, but you could have a good day and you can have a good night and you can have a bad day. And so I started attending to that. Natasha: And I actually started noticing that was true. Like I could have had a very bad night, but the next day many things went well. Many things went my way, and the day was pretty effortless, even if I was slightly tired and whatever. Natasha: And then there were other times where I’d slept perfectly well and I was like, whatever, restless or fidgety or the day had gone badly. And so this dissociation of sleep is this thing that, produces this perfect day for you the next day, and you are just like this perfect person the next day. Natasha: I think for me the dissociation of those two things was also very important from, again, a kind of intellectual lens. Natasha: And then of course there was the whole bit around how do you change your actions, right? What will you do differently? And why I mentioned these two reframing sort of points is that I think they help you take those actions because sometimes you can’t take an action without conviction. Natasha: If you’re not convinced or if you don’t understand why you’re taking the action may not yield very much, but if you do understand why you’re taking that action, it helps. Natasha: I was always so conscious about like setting up breakfast meetings. I would never set up breakfast meetings. I had stopped doing that ’cause I was like no. I don’t know. Natasha: I started setting up breakfast meetings. I started like setting up dinners. I said, that’s fine. I’ll deal with it like however it goes. Calendaring your life the way you would if you did not have any issues with sleep. There was perhaps something powerful about that. Martin: It sounds like in terms of that perspective, really when we were working together, it was just a process of teasing out what you already knew, what was already inside you. This idea that sleep doesn’t need or want or require all of these kind of efforts or attention or rules or rituals or accommodations, it just wants to take care of itself. Martin: And as we explored that, you were able to reflect on your own experience and you realized, huh, yeah, that is the case. Like my experience has been telling me that, but because I’ve, my superpower of problem solving is the dominant force right now that has almost been clouded in a way. And you got this pressure to continue trying to problem solve, continue putting effort in, even though the experience says that might not be useful for you. Martin: And then the second approach was the actions you started to chip away at that power and the influence that sleep was having by focusing more on actions that served you rather than serving insomnia. And as you did that it kinda lost some of its power and influence over you. Martin: So maybe in turn you might have been less inclined to put that effort in, and so it becomes a cycle again, but maybe a more positive cycle compared to before. Natasha: Yeah, very true. I also of course, owe a debt of gratitude to K-Dramas because I one of the things that we discussed and we talked about was also like, I think nighttime awakening is a very unpleasant experience, right? Natasha: And that’s the other thing that people who struggle with insomnia will talk about that. Just the experience of being awake at night is for some reason really unpleasant. But if you flip that and if you start looking at it as some sort of invitation to binge watch K-Dramas, and for me it was fine because you the day is very busy and you’re, you’ve got children, you’ve got work, and so you can’t exactly just watch silly television all the time. Natasha: So for me, I tried to, I started thinking that so I actually intentionally found certain series and. I said, okay, I’m gonna watch these at night and I’m not gonna watch them through the day or at any on the weekends. I’m not going to and I’m gonna watch this at night. And I, and the other thing I told myself was also this idea of, a little bit of like sleep consolidation, I think. Natasha: Which did help with the hyper arousal part because I think that’s so physiological. It had to be trained out. Was this fact that no matter what, I’m not gonna sleep before 1130 or 12 even, so I’d start watching like my TV at, nine 30 and then I almost used to feel, I was almost looking forward to the TV time. Natasha: ’cause I said I have two and a half hours to watch tv. I have so much like time, actually, I don’t have to turn it off. I could just watch the next episode and the next episode. Because, I’d get up and I’d make myself a beverage and I’d come back, I’d make myself a snack, so it became this I have this whole day, which is relentless, and then I have these three hours that are just mine. Natasha: So looking at it from that point of view did help because once I told myself that I’m not gonna try to sleep before 12 I think it helped because then, yeah, by the time it was 12, I was quite tired and I hadn’t spent two or three hours in bed trying to sleep, working myself up, on the kind of arousal lad because when you’re tossing and turning, you get kinda worked up in a way that’s very different from when you’re just watching like Korean tv and then you’re genuinely tired. Natasha: And then by 12, 12 30, I was so there were many nights where I started successfully falling asleep at the time that, I decided to fall asleep at, which was 12 or 1230. And I think that also helped quite a bit because this idea that your relationship, like I was saying, that relationship with your bed literally and your body’s own cues that, when it lies down, it starts to feel like this. Natasha: I think it suddenly started changing because of accepting the night. I am accepting the fact that the night is going to be long, and so why don’t you make it nice? Martin: Your relationship to being awake at night had changed through your actions. So even if sleep was exactly the same, in other words, you never fell asleep before, let’s say three o’clock in the morning. Martin: The difference is one time you might have been in bed tossing and turning, really struggling, battling away until three o’clock in the morning. This alternative approach involved watching some TV shows that you like doing stuff that’s more pleasant, setting aside time for yourself making it a more useful way to spend that time awake and that in turn. Martin: Although there’s obviously no guarantee that’s gonna make sleep happen because it’s out of your control. It just makes that time awake more pleasant. It doesn’t get you so exhausted and tangled up in that struggle. And it can also help train your brain that maybe being awake at night isn’t such a threat that we need to be on action stations to try and protect you against. Natasha: Exactly that. Martin: What would you say if someone is listening to this, and we’re talking about making being awake more pleasant, we’re talking about accepting that sleep might be out of your control, that the difficult thoughts and feelings might be out of your control. But someone’s listening to this and they’re thinking, I’m not interested in any of that. Martin: I just want to sleep. I don’t want to. Read a book or watch tv, I need to get rid of these thoughts and these feelings. I don’t wanna learn how to deal with them. I just wanna sleep. How do you respond to that? Natasha: I would say that’s a perfectly understandable reaction. So the first thing is that, that’s a completely understandable thing to feel when you’re going through this. Natasha: And I felt exactly that. I think I also had this, you have to go through your arc because you do go through this like resistance and anger and you feel very, yeah, you feel resentful at the fact that you’re being asked to accept something that you don’t like at all. Natasha: But, I think there is, again I think humans are very resilient in the way that at some point I think you realize that there is no choice. There is no option but to accept because not accepting this is not serving you very well. And so that was the other thing that I think this feeling that you should not be having negative emotions about insomnia. Natasha: That’s not true at all. Like of course you’re going to feel bad. Recovering from insomnia requires you to not think that sleep is important? No, it’s none of that. Because of course you, you’re not gonna think sleep is not important or you’re not gonna value sleep. Natasha: You do value it and it is important. And it is. It’s perfectly fine to exist in that contradiction of, knowing that this is important, wanting it, desiring it, but not becoming completely agitated. I think because that’s the really important part. How do you find routines and rituals, and how do you find maybe just the first level of acceptance. Natasha: That’ll help you feel a little less agitated. And then I think that, these are positively reinforcing loops because when you experience that slight, like release from not feeling very agitated, from that first level of acceptance, you accept a little further, and then you practice acceptance and it gets better and better. Natasha: And the funny thing is, it is true. There are times of course, and I am sure that many of your other like people might have said the same thing, but when you start sleeping better again, there’s a part of you that’s I should not be noticing this. I should not be noticing that I’m sleeping better, that this is working because I don’t wanna notice it. Natasha: A part of you is noticing the fact that, okay, I’m relaxing and I’m, I’ve let go. I’ve just let go now. So I’m gonna watch TV and I’m just gonna stay awake and I’m gonna embrace whatever this is. And then you’re like, and it tends to work. And the more you do that, the more it works, so I think it’s a com. It’s this whole like positive loop. Martin: All thoughts and all feelings are okay. So much of our struggle can come from this belief that we shouldn’t have certain thoughts or we shouldn’t have certain feelings, and that can just set us up for a struggle. Martin: The alternative way forward is to acknowledge all of our thoughts and our feelings as normal valid human. That as human beings we experience the full range. Some make us feel good, some don’t. Some are useful, some aren’t. Some are true, some maybe not. We have the power to decide how we choose to respond to them, and I think that’s really what you’ve encapsulated so well because it’s when we respond with resistance, which is completely understandable, it feeds into it and it gives that stuff more power and more influence, and it just gets as tangled up. Martin: If we’re feeling stuck, if things feel mysterious, perhaps there’s an opportunity here to respond in a different way with a little bit more acknowledgement, acceptance, and letting go, as you said, not holding this all so tightly just opening up to it a little bit more. Martin: If nothing else, perhaps that would just free up a little bit of energy and attention that otherwise would’ve been consumed by battle for you to do more of the stuff that really matters to you. Natasha: Yeah, and if anyone’s listening to this, I think they’re already halfway there in the sense that they have at least found something that’s giving them, that’s helping them square their own experience with some amount of knowledge. And at least, like I said, for me it was really helpful. Like the hardest part was all the misinformation, like when you are being, when you are consuming something that’s not actually helpful for insomnia and then, and so it’s either lack of information or it’s misinformation. Natasha: But I think once you get the right information, even if there’s resistance initially, resistance gets spent, eventually you are spent, right? Because how much are you gonna struggle? Because you will resist, and you will resist. And then eventually, if it’s not working, you will be tired and you will let your guard down. Natasha: And at that point, at least you’ve got the right information and you are ready to receive it. The problem is when there’s just no information and then you just continue in these loops of confusion. So I think for me, awareness generation is really important. Martin: I remember when we were working together, you had this concern about acceptance. How do we achieve acceptance without it feel like you are in a position of helplessness and you’re giving up, versus how do I achieve acceptance with a sense of power of individual empowerment? Martin: And that can be a bit difficult to wrap your head around, right? Natasha: It is. I remember writing to you and saying that I’m not feeling like I’m choosing acceptance. I’m being forced to accept, in which case it’s not acceptance, it’s just something that’s forced on you. Natasha: But the thing is, like I said, I think that resistance and that friction was required for me to get over the hump as well. And there are people who may perhaps come to acceptance easily and there are others who may not. And I think both reactions or like a whole spectrum of reactions is perfectly natural. Natasha: What I do feel is from my own journey also, is that eventually, like acceptance is inevitable because, the friction doesn’t yield anything that’s helpful in this situation. And so the only thing is that, like I said, having somebody to talk through on when you’re going through this, having someone to talk through with is important because, some of the words and the reframing and the perspectives, they’re there at least. Natasha: And it’s like when your acceptance portal finally opens. It’s available for that information to go inside. If there was nothing there, then you may accept it, but from a place of helplessness or sorrow or just, I don’t know. And then you would have to work a lot harder perhaps to generate solutions and kind of perspectives for yourself. Natasha: But if there is some perspective, initially the door is closed and it’s not going in, but that’s okay because at some point the door will open and then all of that stuff that’s waiting to be heard and understood will go inside. Martin: Yeah. There’s value in every part of the experience, even when it feels like we’re really struggling, there’s always something to be learned from that, and it might not feel like it’s useful at that time, but at some point in the future, we will serve some kind of value as a learning experience or something we can pick and choose from to help us move forward in a different way or to keep us moving forward in the way we want to be moving. Natasha: Yeah. Yeah, that’s true. Martin: What did progress look like for you on this journey? Did you find that as you were starting to get this sense of independence back, sleep just suddenly magically transformed and you were having great nights of sleep and every single night was better than the last? Natasha: I wish I could say that. There is no such thing as perfect sleep. And no one is sleeping perfectly. I mean, you may have less sleep for multiple reasons, right? You’re traveling and then there’s other disruptions and someone is sick and so on, so forth. Natasha: So I think, I think the important, the huge tangible change, I think and it’s not a change that, let’s say that if you just looked at the surface of my life in terms of like, how productive is she and how active is she? And how creative is she? I think a lot of that is probably looks the same because you are still doing things. Natasha: But I think what did change, one of the things that did change Yes, is that I think this idea of traveling definitely came back for me. Traveling for leisure. Not just work, but traveling for leisure. And so I did actually travel last year a couple of times for leisure. And so that was one small change. Natasha: Yeah, like having late nights and it’s totally fine having early mornings and it’s totally fine. And just so that sense of like release with your own. Calendar and not having anxiety about it, so I think for me, there are, of course, even today, there are several times where, you will get, six hours or five hours, because maybe you’re traveling. Natasha: But I’ve noticed that not only I don’t talk about it, like that’s the other thing, right? I don’t, I’m not talking about it with like my husband or my sister or anybody that, gosh, like I wouldn’t see that talk about it at all because I’m yeah, it’s fine, I’ll go to bed tonight and tomorrow or whatever. Natasha: And even if I’m, even if I’m like, I’ve got three straight like events and for some reason the three straight nights I’m going to be pulling like late nights, I’m okay. I’m not very stressed about that. So I think basically there’s a certain sense of relaxation and I will say that, look, this journey is not linear, right? Natasha: And I suppose like the longer you’ve struggled with it or the harder you’ve struggled with it, and the more intensely you have felt about it, like it is gonna take you some time to feel like this isn’t a theme in your life at all. And like for me, for instance, even like this showing up here to talk about it and to have it recorded, there was for a long time I thought that I wanted to write about it actually for last year, early last year, I started wanting to, when I experienced a lot of these benefits, I said I should write a whole piece. Natasha: And then I just couldn’t because I said that, I don’t want to jinx it. And so there were these lingering feelings, right? Saying that if I talk about it, if I, and if I go out and announce that I’m fine and I had this problem and I no longer have it I don’t wanna say that. But then, over time it just faded away. Natasha: Even that, even holding onto that kind of goes away. Time actions, consistency and of course this underlying reframing is the journey. It happens in fits and starts, but I think eventually you do get to a point where. Your relationship, like you said, the relationship with sleep changes. Natasha: One of the things I do appreciate about this journey has been that I have actually learned a lot about sleep. There is no perfect, there is no eight hour, eight and a half, seven or whatever. There is no, you have to find your rhythm and the more you dissociate with the sleep dogma that has become a culture I think the better off everyone is. Martin: In terms of the timeline here, how long would you say that it took you to get to a point where you felt like you’d left the struggle behind? Natasha: I think there was this whole period of, there, there was also like micro progress and then there was like a little bit of a slide back and there was frustrations. Like I said, it was non-linear. So I would say that it was probably only by the summer, so about maybe four months or so, four or five months. Natasha: And I did actually start scheduling like work trips and travel and so on so forth. And the more I did that, I think by the time summer rolled around, I was starting to feel like I could plan my days and plan my weeks and plan my time the way I wanted to. And yeah, and it’s been like a steady stabilization from that point all the way, till now. Natasha: I do wanna again stress that when somebody says that they no longer struggle with insomnia, it doesn’t mean that they sleep like nine hours or eight hours every single night consistently all the time. That is not the, that’s not what resolution looks like. Natasha: Resolution is you’re not controlled by it. Martin: It’s very rare that someone tells me that they’re able to change everything and transform their lives in a few days or a few weeks. And it often requires ongoing practice too, right? There’s ups and downs. Martin: We’re always gonna get pulled back into a struggle, whether it’s with sleep or insomnia or anything else that goes on in our lives. It’s just that awareness when that’s happening and being able to change course to refocus on actions that matter to us and to live our lives and allow sleep, the opportunity to take care of itself rather than trying to fix sleep so that we can live our lives. Martin: If we can just flip that around, it can just be such a transformative way of approaching this. Natasha: Yeah, I agree. Martin: Your whole learning experience, your whole journey maybe comes down to this realization through action that you have the ultimate power over your life. And as you reinforce that, sleep just becomes a thing. It doesn’t just, it doesn’t become the most important thing in your life when you are not resisting it so much when you’re just accepting sleep is gonna turn up and do whatever it wants or insomnia’s gonna turn up, do whatever it wants. Natasha: And you do start sleeping much better. I think the listeners especially need to hear that if they’re going through it right now, they don’t want to, feel like the takeaway of this is that, oh, you’re just gonna reach some radical acceptance, but your sleep is not gonna change. Natasha: The truth is that the sleep does change and you do feel rested and you do sleep more and you get back to sleeping normally. The idea is to just not expect that. That every, you’re going to be in some sleep paradise all the time because that’s just, that’s not even normal life, and I think by the time, if you’re going through a lot of insomnia, what you want is that you want sleep paradise. Natasha: You just want something where every day you’re just knocked out cold beautifully because you develop that kind of a, sensitivity to sleep. But once you get over it, you realize that most of the times you’re sleeping well, sometimes you’re not. And irrespective, it’s just not on your mind anymore. Martin: Natasha, I want to thank you for all the time you’ve taken to share your experience with us. I do have one last question for you. If someone is listening and they just feel like they cannot end the struggle with insomnia, that there’s nothing they can do, what would you say to them? Natasha: The first thing I would really say is that it’s understandable to feel that. And it’s hard. It’s very hard feeling that, it’s a really hard place to be in when you are feeling like that. But I would say that there are many people now who have figured out how to come out of this. Natasha: It’s not a pharmacological technical solution, it’s something that’s inside you, everybody has it. Your sleep is not broken. Your brain is not broken. Like nothing about you is broken. It’s a phase and I think like everything this will pass and some of just a little bit of intentionality and just to some amount of, perhaps, hopefully perspective and reframing and then just changing your actions a little bit and a combination of all of that and patience will get you through it, so I think that’s probably what I’d like, anybody listening who’s struggling to take away. Martin: Thank you so much again for coming on. Natasha: Yeah. Martin, thank you so much. Thank you for what you do. Martin: Thanks for listening to the Insomnia Coach Podcast. If you're ready to get your life back from insomnia, I would love to help. You can learn more about the sleep coaching programs I offer at Insomnia Coach — and, if you have any questions, you can email me. Martin: I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Insomnia Coach Podcast. I'm Martin Reed, and as always, I'd like to leave you with this important reminder — you are not alone and you can sleep. I want you to be the next insomnia success story I share! If you're ready to stop struggling with sleep and get your life back from insomnia, you can start my insomnia coaching course at insomniacoach.com. Please share this episode!

11-18-25 - Promoting Frank's New Years Eve Shows At Tempe Improv - Emailer Says His 14yo Brother And Sister Plan To Come Out To Family On Thanksgiving - Would We Prefer A BJ Or Turkey Dinner For ThanksgivingSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

11-18-25 - Promoting Frank's New Years Eve Shows At Tempe Improv - Emailer Says His 14yo Brother And Sister Plan To Come Out To Family On Thanksgiving - Would We Prefer A BJ Or Turkey Dinner For ThanksgivingSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Send us a textJoin your host, Clifton Pope, as he is back with another solocast as The Wellness Whisperer Series makes it's return for the November 2025 edition!In this month's edition, Clifton Pope breaks down how the cold/flu season is fueled by sugar with it starting with Halloween Candy, Thanksgiving(pie holiday), holiday cookies for Christmas, and Alcohol for New Years!Clifton breaks down the research on why it doesn't have to be a downhill sugar crash as long as we eat mindfully, skip the excess, and prioritize your health!Hit that follow/subscribe button on Apple/Spotify Podcasts/Rumble so you don't miss a single installment of the Wellness Whisperer Series!Visit https://buymeacoffee.com/cphfwb so you can join the HFWB community and support the show with a one time donation to your choice of 3 tiers with exclusive benefits included in each tier!Leave a rating/review to help more like-minded individuals become empowered with information/resources provided by Clifton Pope and all guests involved with the show!Thank you for the love and support!Support the showhttps://athleticism.com/HEALTHFWEALTHB https://coolgreenclothing.com/HEALTHFITNESSWEALTHBUSINESS https://normotim.com/HEALTHFIT https://www.portablemeshnebulizer.com/pages/collab?dt_id=2573900official affiliates of the HFWB Podcast Series Please support the mission behind each product/services as it helps grow the HFWB Podcast Series to where the show can continue to roll along!

November 12th - Show 1093 The Chat We discussed Lee's recent weekend trip to Chester and his upcoming apartment booking in York for December. We also noted that December will have only three shows due to the last two shows of December falling on Christmas Eve and New Years [...]

Overview: In this episode of the SMB Community Podcast, hosts Amy and James discuss the importance of timely year-end planning for IT professionals, suggesting October as the ideal start time for preparation. They cover effective strategies for developing annual goals, emphasizing the need for a personalized approach and tactical objectives. The hosts also examine the recent cloud outages from AWS and Azure, stressing the importance of diversifying cloud services. They touch on the growing presence of AI in technology and its implications for MSPs. Additionally, they explore the upcoming 50th anniversary of Apple and the rumors surrounding new product releases. The episode concludes with tips on maintaining high customer service standards and the excitement of holiday preparations.  --- Chapter Markers: 00:00 Introduction and Welcome 01:54 MSP Question of the Week: New-Year Planning 08:51 News Highlights: AWS Outage 12:22 Tech Talk: Apple's 50th Anniversary and AI Innovations 14:41 Economic Insights: Tech Layoffs and MSP Growth 20:02 AI in Browsers and MSP Strategies 21:10 Holiday Preparations and Personal Stories 24:42 Conclusion and Farewell --- New Book Release: I'm proud to announce the release of my new book, The Anthology of Cybersecurity Experts! This collection brings together 15 of the nation's top minds in cybersecurity, sharing real-world solutions to combat today's most pressing threats. Whether you're an MSP, IT leader, or simply passionate about protecting your data, this book is packed with expert advice to help you stay secure and ahead of the curve. Available now on Amazon! https://a.co/d/f2NKASI --- Sponsor Memo: Since 2006, Kernan Consulting has been through over 30 transactions in mergers & acquisitions - and just this past year, we have been involved in six (6). If you are interested in either buying, selling, or valuation information, please reach out. There is alot of activity and you can be a part of it. For more information, reach out at kernanconsulting.com

SEND THE BOYS A TEXT MESSAGE!On this episode:Big G and Zabbo are back for another episode!The boys start with caddie stories. Highlights include:  the boys talk about working together a lot lately, Big G found out that his intuition isn't always correct and Zabbo has almost had enough of corporate golf!The boys discuss in more length what exactly they look for in order to judge a golfer's ability.In the second part of the episode the boys answer some mail bag questions: they talk about how they decide what kind of shot to play, opinions on LIV Golf moving to 72 holes and have the boys stuck to their New Years resolutions?The episode ends with shoutouts!Support the showCheck out the Good Boy Golf website and us promo code: DONKEY20 for a cool 20% discount! If you have any questions or comments, please email us: podcast@glorifieddonkey.comIF YOU WANT TO SUPPORT US WHY NOT: BUY US A BEER!⚡ Subscribe for ALL Episodes:▶APPLE: The Real Life Caddie Golf Podcast▶SPOTIFY: The Real Life Caddie Golf Podcast⚡ Join us on Social Media:▶TWITTER: @GlorifiedDonkey▶FACEBOOK: @glorifieddonkey▶INSTAGRAM: @glorifieddonkey⚡ Visit our website:▶WEBSITE: http://www.glorifieddonkey.com/⚡ SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL:▶YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@GlorifiedDonkey

In Happy New Years (New Vessel Press, 2025), after finishing her teaching degree, Leah emigrates to the U.S. for a teaching position that she thinks of as temporary. She ends up staying for 5 decades. She keeps up with her old classmates in an annual new year's letter that outlines mostly her triumphs, with brief allusions to her losses, her failures, her misery. She tells the truth to just one friend who is still in Israel. We slowly come to understand Leah's optimism and cheerfulness as she glides over the secrets and shame that turned her into who she is. Leah falls in love, is the object of vile gossip, gets unfairly maligned, makes some bad decisions, is alternatingly proud or aggravated about her sons, and is betrayed more than once. Despite the hardships and her flaws, Leah has moments of great joy, travels the world, and lives a full and rich life. Maya Arad is the author of twelve books of Hebrew fiction, as well as studies in literary criticism and linguistics. Born in Israel in 1971, she received a PhD in linguistics from University College London and for the past twenty years has lived in California where she is writer in residence at Stanford University's Taube Center for Jewish Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In Happy New Years (New Vessel Press, 2025), after finishing her teaching degree, Leah emigrates to the U.S. for a teaching position that she thinks of as temporary. She ends up staying for 5 decades. She keeps up with her old classmates in an annual new year's letter that outlines mostly her triumphs, with brief allusions to her losses, her failures, her misery. She tells the truth to just one friend who is still in Israel. We slowly come to understand Leah's optimism and cheerfulness as she glides over the secrets and shame that turned her into who she is. Leah falls in love, is the object of vile gossip, gets unfairly maligned, makes some bad decisions, is alternatingly proud or aggravated about her sons, and is betrayed more than once. Despite the hardships and her flaws, Leah has moments of great joy, travels the world, and lives a full and rich life. Maya Arad is the author of twelve books of Hebrew fiction, as well as studies in literary criticism and linguistics. Born in Israel in 1971, she received a PhD in linguistics from University College London and for the past twenty years has lived in California where she is writer in residence at Stanford University's Taube Center for Jewish Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Struggling to find things to binge with family and friends over the holiday season? If so, we've got you covered on this week's What The Hype! Join hosts Eric and Pam as they share a few recommendations they think would make for perfect watching material after your Thanksgiving feast, or even in that lull between Christmas and New Years. In addition to sharing some television and movie titles they think you'll love, the hosts also each bring a bonus game recommendation to the table so you'll have plenty of entertainment options to consider! Television/Movie titles mentioned in this episode: ‘Psyche' (2006), ‘Julie and the Phantoms' (2020), ‘Nonnas' (2025), ‘Kpop Demon Hunters' (2025) Games mentioned in this episode: Codenames ONLINE! (https://codenames.game/), Skribbl! (https://skribbl.io/), Trial By Trolley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can ChatGPT become your new therapist?  A growing trend shows more and more people trying it out, and Anna decided to find out for herself! A recent poll equated an individual's attractiveness to the color of their car.  Anna & Raven discuss the appeal of white, black and silver cars (and their drivers)! Anna was asked by a stranger to help take a locker room “before” picture!  What other unusual things go on in the private space of gym locker rooms? Anna and Raven think that self-checkout shouldn't be a thing! Find out why they can't stand it! Anna, Raven and Producer Justin tried to go all weekend without their phones! Find out how long they were able to stay disconnected! A report of an escalating fight between neighbors over a driveway easement sparked a conversation about the best way to handle drama on the block!  Anna & Raven find out what makes good and bad neighbors! Are you up to date on this week's biggest news stories?  Anna and Raven will get you caught up on what's trending, including a terrifying twin mix up! Pick'em news - Anna picks three crazy news stories, and Raven picks one to talk about.  His options are: Demi Lovato's questionable criticism of frozen yogurt, a teacher getting charged a small fortune for being a nice guy, and a death metal singer doing something nice for the kids! With the prices of everything constantly rising, Anna & Raven find out what peoples' breaking point is regarding one essential daily staple!  Couples Court – Nick's parents live in Greece and usually travel to stay with them for a week or two around the holidays. This year they've notified Nick and his wife, Linda, that they would like to come stay with them for about seven weeks, from Thanksgiving through New Years. Linda thinks it's too much, they don't drive, it's a lot of cooking with her mother-in-law, it's just too much to have them around the whole time. Nick thinks you can't say no, they're so excited to spend time with the kids! What do you think? Can't Beat Raven – Lou has a chance to win $3000!  All he has to do is take down Raven in pop culture trivia!

We are moving into the most dangerous time of year for sales professionals . . . the holidays.  From now until the first week of January, you're going to face a perfect storm of distractions, excuses, and temptations that can absolutely destroy your year end number and your first quarter production next year. Sadly, most salespeople don't even see it coming. It's not until the end of December that they realize they're in trouble, but by then, it's too late.  The Trouble With the Holidays The trouble typically starts Thanksgiving week in the United States and continues as we move into the first week of December. That's when distractions start flooding in. You've got company parties, family obligations, shopping to do. All of which knock you off of your routine causing your daily prospecting and follow up activities to drop. And let's be honest, you've been grinding hard for the entire year and you're ready to let your guard down and coast a bit before the end of the year.  By the second and third week of December many of the opportunities in your pipeline that you were counting on closing start to ghost you or tell you that their pushing decisions off to next year. And by now you're so mentally checked out that you're barely doing any prospecting at all.  Once we move into the Christmas and New Years weeks your office is a ghost town, the phones are silent, your pipeline is stalled, you've missed your forecast and you convince yourself there's no point in even trying.  And just like that, you've lost an entire month of selling.   My book The LinkedIn Edge gives you the master blueprint for turning LinkedIn into an optimized, revenue-generating sales engine—whether you're deploying Sales Navigator or not. Learn to work LinkedIn like a professional with step-by-step, immediately actionable tactics that supercharge your presence on the world's largest networking platform. Get it today wherever books are sold.       Holiday Sales Math But here's the brutal truth: You didn't just lose a month. You lost three months. Because all of those prospects that pushed off decisions until the new year are not coming back; and that empty pipeline you're staring at, as you move into January, is going to haunt you through March and potentially, through the entire year.  Your average sales cycle is probably 60-90 days. That means deals you put into the pipeline over the next two to three weeks are crucial for a good January. Likewise, the ones you add in December are the key to delivering a solid February and March.  But if you allow the Holidays to take you off of your game, you might not recover until April or May. Your entire first quarter is shot.  This is the killer and how so many promising sales careers end prematurely. I've witnessed far too many salespeople get fired in March for pipeline problems that started in November when they let their discipline slip during the holidays. Do Not Allow Active Deals Stall and Die The deals currently in your pipeline are more vulnerable right now than at any other time of year. Your prospects have the perfect excuse to push decisions.  When deals sit idle for a month, bad things happen. Stakeholders change. Budgets get reallocated. Priorities shift. Your champion gets distracted by seventeen other initiatives. Your competitors slip in while you're eating fruitcake and drinking eggnog. I've watched salespeople lose six-figure deals that they thought were "locked up" in November, simply because they took their foot off the gas during the holidays.  I've said this before and I'll say it again. Pipeline opportunities that push into the new year are not coming back. Do not count on them. Do not allow yourself to be delusional about them. If you don't get forecasted opportunities closed by the end of the year, consider them dead! For this reason, you must be vigilant with follow up, assertive with your communication and do whatever it t...

It might not be New Years yet, but HFTV has the most ball dropping episode of the series yet this week!

Invest in Real Estate for $10 - https://fundrise.com/invitation-program/welcome?inviteKey=gg70q3&utm_campaign=investor-invitation&utm_medium=invite-link&utm_source=fundriseGet Free Stock with The Robinhood App - https://join.robinhood.com/jasmint33/Books that Helped Jasmine Shift Her Mindset for Millions - https://www.amazon.com/shop/iamjlthom...Money Honey Course to Manifest Millions - https://shesworthy.org/moneyhoneyPositioned to Prosper Masterclass for Passive Income Streams - https://shesworthy.org/prosperDestined for Abundance Devotional + Masterclass - https://shesworthy.org/abundanceJournal Your Way to $100K Workbook - https://shesworthy.org/journal The Money Goddess Podcast - https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/themoneygoddess/episodes/Journal-Your-Way-to-100K-e2jl6bi

Food historian and acclaimed author Becky Libourel Diamond provides an exclusive look inside her spectacular new release, The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook, during an in-depth interview on The Ash Said It Show. This summary is a must-read for holiday bakers and food history enthusiasts seeking to bring 19th-century elegance to their modern Christmas celebrations. The Mystery of the Sugar Plum Revealed Becky definitively solves the mystery of the legendary sugar plum. She reveals the surprising truth: these historic confections are not sugary plums, but highly prized, expensive spice-coated nuts and seeds, meticulously layered in candy. This insight reframes the sugar plum as the ultimate luxury Victorian dessert of the Gilded Age. Extravagance, Adaptations, and Chef Walter Staib When discussing Gilded Age extravagance, Becky champions incorporating the era's tradition of extended, multi-day feasts and generous hospitality into the modern holiday schedule. The most demanding recipe to update was the lengthy historic fruit cake. Her secret weapon for accurately translating complex 19th-century measurements for today's home bakers? The simple, essential digital kitchen scale. Becky shares her deep respect for fellow food historian Chef Walter Staib, who penned the book's foreword. She would love to see him prepare the grand historic roasted Christmas goose on his show—the ultimate Gilded Age holiday centerpiece. Global Traditions and Festive Recipes Beyond Christmas, the cookbook includes Hanukkah and New Year's traditions. Becky shares a fun fact about Hanukkah: the focus on oil-fried recipes, such as perfect latkes, symbolically commemorates the miracle of the oil. For those ready to dive in, Becky recommends the Holiday Tea Cakes as the perfect festive project to start with. For the ultimate showstopper dessert at a holiday feast, she suggests the impressive, flaming Victorian Christmas Pudding. The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook is the definitive guide to vintage holiday recipes and traditions, offering a blend of history and accessible Christmas cooking for every modern kitchen. Becky Libourel Diamond: The Food Historian Connecting the Past to Your Plate Becky Libourel Diamond is a uniquely accomplished food writer, librarian, and historian whose career masterfully blends rigorous historical research with captivating storytelling. She is the definitive authority on Gilded Age food history and Victorian culinary traditions. New Release & Must-Read Cookbooks NEW! Her latest book, The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook: Cookies and Treats from America's Golden Era (Launched September 2025), is a critical resource for holiday bakers and Christmas enthusiasts. Each recipe offers a colorful glimpse into Gilded Age Christmas lore, featuring the history, ingredients, and original baking methods of the era. * Available Now: Find this essential historical cookbook on: * Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Bookshop.org * Walmart * and more major retailers. Previous Bestseller: The Gilded Age Cookbook (August 2023) transports readers back to the elegant dining tables of the 19th century. This book successfully merges detailed Gilded Age stories of celebrity figures—the Vanderbilts, Astors, and Goulds—with historic menus and period recipes updated for modern kitchens. Landmark Culinary History & Research Becky's expertise extends across early American fine dining: * The Thousand Dollar Dinner: An engaging account of the nineteenth-century "Top Chef"-style competitionbetween Philadelphia and New York restaurateurs, documenting the extravagant, seventeen-course feast that helped launch fine restaurant dining in America. * Mrs. Goodfellow: The Story of America's Cooking School: Her first book details the life of a successful 19th-century pastry chef who pioneered an innovative cooking school for young women in Philadelphia.

After hearing Father rant and rave about the Mayor, Kathy decides to write a letter to his honor letting him know exactly what her Father thinks about him.We are skipping over two episodes of Father Knows Best so that we can air them in a couple of months during Christmas and New Years, as they are holiday themed episodes.Originally aired on January 4, 1951. This is episode 63 of Father Knows Best.Please email questions and comments to host@classiccomedyotr.com.Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/classiccomedyotr. Please share this podcast with your friends and family.You can also subscribe to our podcast on Spreaker.com, Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, and Google podcasts.This show is supported by Spreaker Prime.

In Nakd Classics we bring back your favorite episodes that focus on mindset, confidence and holistic health.  Original Episode 114:  This solocast episode gives you a small but impactful challenge to start today to expand your comfort zone, open yourself up to unexpected opportunities and connections. It started with one New Years resolution and became on of the best experiments I ever tried in personal development and personal growth. Get ready for a fun way to experience more of life!  Join the Community Connect on Instagram 7 Steps to Feel Good Nakd Book

James Franklin has been from his position of Head Coach of the Penn State Nittany Lion football team. Franklin spent nearly 12 years in Happy Valley which included a Big Ten Title, multiple New-Years 6 Appearances and 104 wins. What does this mean for PSU moving forward? Who's going to replace him

Afraid of AI? We share how to start small and take control using AI fear-free. Also: bear attacks in Missouri and British Columbia raise outdoor safety concerns, and women bronc riders are defying rodeo stereotypes. Join radio hosts Rebecca Wanner aka ‘BEC' and Jeff ‘Tigger' Erhardt (Tigger & BEC) with the latest in Outdoors & Western Lifestyle News! Real Fear, Real Change: Why It's Time to Embrace AI, Respect Wildlife, and Cheer on Women in Rodeo Don't Fear the Future: How to Start Using AI in Everyday Life Without Feeling Overwhelmed Curious about AI but a little nervous to try it? Learn how to start using AI fear-free with beginner-friendly tools, simple tasks like meal planning, and trusted platforms to get you started. Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn't just for tech experts, coders, or Silicon Valley. In fact, AI is already helping everyday people solve everyday problems—and you can start using it right now, even if you're a complete beginner. If you've been feeling hesitant or even afraid of AI, you're not alone. But the truth is, learning how to use AI doesn't have to be intimidating. With the right mindset and a few simple tools, you can start making your life easier today. Why Are People Afraid of AI? Many people fear AI because of myths and misunderstandings—like the idea that it's going to take over jobs or turn into science fiction-level robots. In reality, AI is more like a helpful assistant. Think of it as a calculator for your brain—only smarter, faster, and more versatile. The key is learning how to work with AI, not against it. Beginner-Friendly AI Use: Meal Planning & Fridge Rescue Let's start with something simple and familiar: food. AI can take the stress out of cooking and shopping with easy tools that help you: 1. Plan Your Weekly Meals Instead of scrolling endlessly for recipe ideas, you can ask AI to: Create a weekly dinner plan based on your dietary needs (gluten-free, keto, vegetarian, etc.) Generate a shopping list based on your meal plan Suggest quick recipes for busy nights Try This Prompt: "Can you create a 5-day dinner meal plan for two adults, under $75, that includes leftovers for lunch?" 2. Use What's in the Fridge Don't throw away food just because you don't know what to do with it. AI can suggest creative, safe, and delicious ways to use ingredients before they expire. Try This Prompt: "I have eggs, wilting spinach, a half-used onion, and some shredded cheese. What can I cook tonight?" You'll be surprised how helpful and creative AI can be! Tips & Tricks to Start Using AI Fear-Free Here's how to dip your toes into the AI pool without diving headfirst: 1. Start With Low-Risk, Everyday Tasks AI is great for: Making grocery lists Writing polite emails Summarizing long articles Brainstorming gift ideas Budget planning The more you use it for small tasks, the more confident you'll feel. 2. Use Clear, Friendly Prompts Don't overthink it—talk to AI like a helpful assistant or a friend. Instead of: "Build me a machine learning model to predict market trends" Try: "Can you explain what inflation is in simple terms?" Safe AI Tools & Websites for Beginners Tool What It Does Why It's Good for Beginners ChatGPT (OpenAI) Answers questions, helps plan, write, learn Very conversational and user-friendly Google Gemini  Similar to ChatGPT, connected to live web Great for real-time info   Pro Tip: Always double-check anything AI gives you—especially when it comes to food safety, finances, or health. Think of AI like a smartphone app: it's here to make your life easier, not harder. Starting small—with simple things like meal planning or organizing your week—can build your confidence and save you time. You don't need to become an AI expert overnight. You just need curiosity, a willingness to try, and a safe place to start.   Tragedy in the Ozarks: Bear Attack Confirmed Authorities have confirmed that a black bear was responsible for the tragic death of a camper in Newton County, Arkansas. 60-year-old Max Thomas of Springfield, Missouri, was camping alone at Sam's Throne Campground in the Ozark National Forest late last week. Thomas had been sleeping on an open-air cot—completely exposed—when he was attacked overnight. Family members grew concerned after not hearing from him for several days. Before communication stopped, Thomas had sent them a photo of a black bear lurking near his campsite. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission initially suspected a bear due to the nature of his injuries and signs at the scene. Now, it's confirmed. Using Thomas's photo and trail cameras set up after the incident, officials tracked down and euthanized the bear believed to be responsible. It's a rare and tragic reminder of the risks of camping in bear country—especially without proper protection. This marks the 2nd Missouri fatal bear attack in a month after 25 years without any. Reference: https://outdoors.com/solo-camper-in-arkansas-killed-in-violent-bear-attack/ https://www.agfc.com/news/cause-of-death-at-sams-throne-campground-determined-animal-mauling/   Grizzly Mauls Elk Hunter in B.C. Wilderness According to Outdoor Life, an elk hunter in southeastern British Columbia is lucky to be alive after a serious encounter with a grizzly bear near Fort Steele last Thursday. Authorities say the man, whose name hasn't been released, was critically injured after a sow grizzly—believed to be protecting her cubs—attacked him. The hunter had been using elk calls, which officials believe may have unintentionally drawn the bear family to his location. The man reportedly got off one shot during the attack, but it's unclear if the bear was hit. Due to the severity of his injuries, officials haven't been able to speak with him yet. He was airlifted to Kelowna General Hospital, where he is now listed in stable condition. Conservation officers used thermal drones and helicopters to search the area but found no sign of the bear afterward. The investigation is ongoing, with help from predator attack specialists and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The town of Fort Steele lies approximately 60 miles north of the Canadian border, and not far from the town of Whitefish and nearby Glacier National Park in northwest Montana. Officials say elk season is currently in full swing in the region—reminding hunters and outdoor enthusiasts to stay alert in grizzly country. Reference: https://www.outdoorlife.com/survival/elk-hunter-attacked-grizzly-bear-bc/ Women Bronc Riders Bucking Rodeo Stereotypes From wild rides to world titles, women bronc riders are rewriting the rodeo rulebook — and they're doing it with grit, guts, and a whole lot of heart. Riders like Tup Forge, who flew in from Australia and won gold at Cheyenne Frontier Days on just three hours of sleep, are proving that this sport isn't just for the boys. It's been less than a decade since women were welcomed back into rough stock competitions after nearly 90 years of exclusion, originally sparked by a tragic accident in 1929. But these modern cowgirls aren't just here for show — they're serious athletes competing in one of the most dangerous events out there. They ride what they rope in — using ranch saddles instead of the typical rodeo gear — and often spend more than they win. Yet despite the bruises and empty pockets, they keep showing up. Why? Because they love it. So next time you see a woman riding high on a bucking bronc, remember: she's not just breaking barriers — she's making history. Ring in 2026 in true Western style at Leather & Lace: A New Year's Rodeo & Party! Watford City, North Dakota will come alive on New Year's Eve with a one-of-a-kind celebration featuring grit, glamour and good times! This high-energy rodeo showcase, including bull riding, Women's bronc riding and bullfighting will keep you on the edge of your seats! We, Tigger & BEC, are excited to be returning for our 3rd year announcing and spinning the tunes - and invite you to ring in the New Years with us afterwards with a live band and packed dance floor! For More Information & To Buy Tickets, Call: (701) 842-3976 SEDONA THE PERFECT WEEKEND GETAWAY Our Annual Girls Weekend had us fly into Phoenix / Mesa, Arizona and the road trip two hours to Sedona, Arizona. To say the area is beautiful is an understatement! There was not a bad view anywhere.    The landscape of "Red Rocks" peaked out from an unusual surprise for me as they were tucked in a forest! Of course there were still prickly pear cactus everywhere, it was refreshing to see so many juniper cousin trees! We rented our first tiny home at the Pines Resort outside of west Sedona and love it! These little homes offered all the amenities of home! Between the miles and miles of hikes to such places as the 7 Sacred Pools to then continuing up the mountain to caves in which we of course explored to then hiking to Devils Bridge.... To say the least, the trip was amazing on all levels!!   The cover photo for this episode is us sitting atop Devils Bridge, a hike few have the chance to take and do recommend!  Photo L to R: Mardee Reich, Kaydee Reich, Rebecca 'BEC' Wanner, Destinee Jensen   Remember: Take The Time, Make The Memories!!!   OUTDOORS FIELD REPORTS & COMMENTS We want to hear from you! If you have any questions, comments, or stories to share about bighorn sheep, outdoor adventures, or wildlife conservation, don't hesitate to reach out. Call or text us at 305-900-BEND (305-900-2363), or send an email to BendRadioShow@gmail.com. Stay connected by following us on social media at Facebook/Instagram @thebendshow or by subscribing to The Bend Show on YouTube. Visit our website at TheBendShow.com for more exciting content and updates! https://thebendshow.com/ https://www.facebook.com/thebendshow WESTERN LIFESTYLE & THE OUTDOORS Jeff ‘Tigger' Erhardt & Rebecca ‘BEC' Wanner are passionate news broadcasters who represent the working ranch world, rodeo, and the Western way of life. They are also staunch advocates for the outdoors and wildlife conservation. As outdoorsmen themselves, Tigger and BEC provide valuable insight and education to hunters, adventurers, ranchers, and anyone interested in agriculture and conservation. With a shared love for the outdoors, Tigger & BEC are committed to bringing high-quality beef and wild game from the field to your table. They understand the importance of sharing meals with family, cooking the fruits of your labor, and making memories in the great outdoors. Through their work, they aim to educate and inspire those who appreciate God's Country and life on the land. United by a common mission, Tigger & BEC offer a glimpse into the life beyond the beaten path and down dirt roads. They're here to share knowledge, answer your questions, and join you in your own success story. Adventure awaits around the bend. With The Outdoors, the Western Heritage, Rural America, and Wildlife Conservation at the forefront, Tigger and BEC live this lifestyle every day. To learn more about Tigger & BEC's journey and their passion for the outdoors, visit TiggerandBEC.com. https://tiggerandbec.com/

Send us a textHow do we spiral with change and not spin out of control?As 2025 continues to swirl with uncertainty, co-hosts Belinda Liu and Omar Brownson reunite with Dr. Paul Wang to honor the Fall Equinox and the elemental transition from metal to soil — a time of release, grounding, and gathering perspective.Together, they explore how nature, Daoist wisdom, and community rituals can help us stay centered when life feels chaotic. From Mount Shasta to the Big Island of Hawai‘i, they share stories of sacred mountains, falling leaves, and the medicine of awe — reminding us that even as the world quickens, we can root deeper into stillness and soil.When the Agapanthus (Perspective) card emerges from the Gratitude Blooming deck, it offers a radical invitation: Pause, breathe, and see through new eyes... the eyes of a mountain.What if transformation isn't something to chase — but something to notice, to nurture, to remember?

October is my New Years. This past year has been a MAJOR "unbecoming" year. I have learned some profound lessons about my health, my life, my nervous system, and my magic.I no longer subscribe to the grind. But I still plan on reaching some incredible goals. Here's the most powerful lessons I've learned and exactly what I'm focusing on next, with more intention and less hustle.Work With Me:https://mailchi.mp/chloepufftraining/offers Connect with me on social media: Instagram: @chloepufftraining & @riseradiopod

Text Us, We Love Hearing From You:)Welcome to How To Be Fit Over 40: Midlife Conversations with Hicunni.  It's week 18 of our 180-day Challenge.Flexibility isn't just about touching your toes; it's about how you move through life after 40. Today, we're talking about how flexibility affects your joints, energy, and even your mindset.Plus, wait until the end, there's a special gift for you!So, grab your smoothie or cup of tea and join the conversations. Let's go!Thanks for Tuning In!Your flexibility deserves a little support, and today's the day to get it.Grab your favorite color set of yoga blocks. THE DISCOUNT HAS ENDED, BUT YOU STILL CAN GET THEM IN YOUR FAV COLOR!Your body will thank you! 

Christine Lamb brings 2023 to a close at Action Church with a reminder to check the gauges of our life heading into the new year.

Text Us, We Love Hearing From You:)Welcome to How To Be Fit Over 40: Midlife Conversations with Hicunni.  It's week 17 of our 180 day Challenge.Life has been busy. You've faced challenges, pivots, and maybe financial stress.We are going to focus on 3 Practical Solutions that will help you decrease your overwhelm to jumpstart your reset for the Holidays and beyond.So, grab your smoothie or cup of tea and join the conversations. Let's go!What to do? Here's a sneak peek (listen to the episode for the breakdown)Simplify commitments Pack your reset kit Anchor in rituals Remember to share this with a friend who needs this reset to destress! Thank you! Let's go friends!Support the showMust Have HOLIDAY FUN FINDS & STOCKING STUFFERS Fit Over 40 Hoodie We can't promise it'll give you superpowers… but we can promise warmth, style, and cozy vibes for all your workouts, walks, or chill days at home. Meet your new favorite hoodie, our take on the classic cotton pullover designed for those who are fit, fab, and over 40. Welcome to the club! Shop: https://howtobefitover40.com The Body Love Mindset 365-Day Meditation Journal is the perfect next step. It provides space for a daily 5-minute meditation, as a “reset button” for clarity and calm. You can grab your copy at https://howtobefitover40.com/pages/resources How to Live In Time: 33 Lessons Learned is available now on ...

Today on the pod there's another important update about the Cryer of Babe Alley, and we talk about how crazy the months get around Christmas and New Years.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of the Friend Forward podcast, host and female friendship expert Danielle Bayard Jackson explores the complexities of "holding space" in our female friendships. She discusses:the importance of holding space for friendsthe three types of support friends needcommon mistakes made in providing emotional supporteffective strategies to "hold space"Through evidence-based insights and personal anecdotes, Danielle emphasizes the significance of understanding emotional needs and the impact of inadequate support on friendships. The episode concludes with practical tips for listeners to improve their ability to hold space for friends in need.---------------------------------------------------SPEAKINGWant to book Danielle to speak at your event? Contact her management at samantha@tellpublicrelations.com.VIDEOSWant to watch Danielle's latest viral video about sorority friendships and connections? Click here.TRAININGInterested in doing what Danielle does for a living as a women's relational health coach? Learn more at womensrelationalhealthinstitute.comPARTNERSHIPSWant to partner with Danielle for an upcoming campaign (Fall, Friendsgiving, Christmas, New Years)? Reach out to us at hello@betterfemalefriendships.comVISIBILITYIf you have a business or brand and want the same kind of visibility that Danielle Bayard Jackson has enjoyed (brand deals, book deals, media appearances, speaking engagements), join her visibility boot camp. Details here at tellpublicrelations.com"WHO IS THIS WOMAN?"Learn about Danielle's book, research, partnerships, and media appearances at daniellebayardjackson.com.

Many feared their lives would be forever altered after New Years 2000. For some, it was - just not in the ways they thought. We'll go back to our Dec 10, 2018 review of “Headlong: Surviving Y2K” from Dan Taberski.OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "HEADLONG: SURVIVING Y2K" BEGIN IN THE FINAL SIX MINUTES OF THE EPISODE. For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Laufey's a young Icelandic/Asian jazz aficionado. Studying the music from her parents, she's kept the genre alive through self-compositions this decade. Fans are dazzled of her writing, singing, playing piano/guitar/cello! "Third time's the charm" for 3rd album A Matter of Time, topping jazz charts, and just crossed over #4 on Billboard's 200 albums chart. Brilliantly romanticizing a "timely" concept record. I share this young lady's music journey, review the tracks, and evaluate its popularity in this episode. Theme Song: "Dance Track", composed by Jessica Ann CatenaFan Favorite Singles: "Like the Movies" debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live (2022)"From the Start" (2022, 2024-2025); New Years' Rockin' Eve (2024); GMA (2025)Remix: "Confess Your Love" - Jiandro ft. ola.wav (2025); Tiktok dance"Goddess" (2024); Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon"Christmas Magic" from Red One; UK's The Graham Norton Show (2024)"Silver Lining" (2025); GMA3"Tough Luck" (2025)"Letter to My 13-Year-Old Self" with Barbra Streisand (2025)"Lover Girl" (2025); GMA; Studio"Snow White" (2025)Interviews: CBS Sunday Morning (edited); MTV; Buzzfeed with puppiesRelated Episodes: Ep. 42 - Taylor Swift's folklore (Track by Track)Ep. 75 - "Time" & Clock Songs CountdownEp. 166 - 'Wednesday' & "Goo Goo Muck"Ep. 235 - Eclipse PlaylistEp. 237 - The Tortured Poets DepartmentEp. 269 - Christmas 2024 PlaylistEp. 294 - Prom 2025 PlaylistFollow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Spotify playlists. 

You recently realized that a friend in your life is more like a "frenemy", but for some reason you can't seem to end the relationship. Why is it so difficult to separate yourself from someone who doesn't always have your best interest at heart?In this week's episode, host and resident friendship expert Danielle Bayard Jackson shares what the research has to say about these kinds of friend dynamics, along with ways that you can navigate these tense relationships.NOTE If you want access to the full episode (including the corresponding guide!), join us in "Office Hours (our Patreon community), including bonus episodes and resources. Join NOW at betterfemalefriendships.com/podcastWant to read more about "frenemies"? Read this Huffpost article.---------------------------------------------------SPEAKINGWant to book Danielle to speak at your event? Contact her management at samantha@tellpublicrelations.com.VIDEOSWant to watch Danielle's latest viral video about sorority friendships and connections? Click here.TRAININGInterested in doing what Danielle does for a living as a women's relational health coach? Learn more at womensrelationalhealthinstitute.comPARTNERSHIPSWant to partner with Danielle for an upcoming campaign (Fall, Friendsgiving, Christmas, New Years)? Reach out to us at hello@betterfemalefriendships.comVISIBILITYIf you have a business or brand and want the same kind of visibility that Danielle Bayard Jackson has enjoyed (brand deals, book deals, media appearances, speaking engagements), join her visibility boot camp. Details here at tellpublicrelations.com"WHO IS THIS WOMAN?"Learn about Danielle's book, research, partnerships, and media appearances hat daniellebayardjackson.com.