LOCKDOWN CHRISTMAS MIRACLE

2020 really was turning out to be the worst year ever.

It had been bad enough that Eric had been cheated out of a senior prom and received his high school diploma in the mail, but now his first year of college was turning out to be even worse. The State University he attended had opted to allow students to attend classes in person and live on campus as the school year had begun. Eric had moved up to campus in September expecting to enjoy all the freedom and opportunity that college had always meant to small town kids like him. He'd finally be away from his parents and the small town he'd grown up in, filled with people who both knew him by sight, and his parents by name.

Eric had no sooner moved into the dorms when the college announced that the state health authorities had ordered all classes to be moved online and that all sports and activities would be suspended until infection levels of COVID in the state had dropped to "safe" levels. With everything shut down, Eric found that college life amounted to spending almost all of his time in his dorm room with his dorky roommate Jeff, and not much else. There were no football games, no parties and even worse, no opportunities to meet or talk to girls. It totally and completely sucked.

When he prepared to head home for Thanksgiving break, Eric wasn't at all shocked that the university recommended that everyone take their personal belongings home in case they weren't allowed back in for the rest of the semester. Infection rates had been rising in the state as the weather had gotten colder and restrictions on everything had been getting tighter as they did. If the school was eventually shut down, no one would be allowed back in their dorms until some point when the state gave the school clearance to reopen to faculty and students. Like everyone else, Eric had packed up all of his stuff for the trip home.

His dad had driven up to school to give both Eric and his sister Ellie a ride home for Thanksgiving. Like Eric, Ellie had packed up everything she had brought to school and it was a tight fit getting everything into their large SUV. Even the third row seat was packed.

Ellie was a year ahead of Eric, and studying nursing, so her dorms were over near the Bio & Chem buildings on the other side of campus. Eric was studying to be a network engineer and his dorm was attached to the new Tech Building that had been completed over the previous Summer. Both the building and the dorms had been built with a grant from one of the big tech companies who counted one of its founders among the school's alum. The company had also funded five full scholarships along with the labs, dorms and class rooms that made up the new Tech Center that bore the former student's name.

Ellie had bitched about how spoiled Eric was to be the first to live in a brand new dorm building when she was stuck in one of the oldest dorms on campus, but Eric would have gladly spent the semester with a couple hundred nursing students than the tech nerds that populated every room in his own building. He hadn't seen a cute girl since he'd been on campus and taking all of his classes online meant he spent the majority of his time in the dorm with his roommate. He didn't even have the privacy to jack off properly or look at porn online through the school's wifi. His roommate had yet to show any interest in girls and Eric wasn't sure the guy even knew how to jerk off. Everything about this year had sucked.

"This sucks," Ellie pouted from the back seat. It was as if she was reading his mind.

"Which part?" Eric turned back to look at her.

Ellie was looking at her phone, her full, pink lips set into a compressed line of anger and frustration. She looked up with her oversized blue eyes blazing under the partial curtain of her long blond hair, hanging beside her face as she looked down at her phone, "They just posted that the campus won't reopen until after Christmas break and that students need to be prepared to complete both their Fall Semester coursework and Spring Classes online as the school may be forced to remain closed until Fall 2021!" She slammed the phone down in her lap and crossed her arms in a huff.

Ellie's naturally fair complexion was deepening to an angry red as she fumed and Eric couldn't help notice that the way she had her arms crossed tightly across her stomach was pushing her full "C" sized tits up into the "V" shaped neckline in her angora sweater, accentuating her cleavage. Eric felt a flush of heat and embarrassment as he realized that he was enjoying the sight much more than he should, but considering that he'd been cut off from pretty girls for months, he really couldn't blame himself for getting his wires a little crossed.

Ellie didn't have huge tits, but considering she was only a few inches over five feet, they looked huge on her. As did the curve in her hips, butt and legs. Everything about Ellie had always seemed to be bursting at the edges, her voice, her personality and as she had gone through puberty, the lines of her figure. She was like a bombshell in a mini version, which she had always accentuated with the tallest heels she could find, and the tightest clothes her parents would allow her to wear. Ellie had been the cause of plenty of arguments, both with, and between, her parents growing up, mostly involving their mother, who accused their father of 'encouraging' her because he always shrugged and said, "Well, she is the middle child."

Eric's friends had always had an unhealthy fascination with Ellie as she was only a year older than them and one of the prettiest girls in their small town. When they had finally discovered the movie "Wedding Crashers", Eric had been hearing ever since that Ellie was the blond version of Isla Fisher's character from that movie. Although Eric could see the resemblance physically between them, it only served to dampen his ability to share the attraction that the rest of his friends had for Isla Fisher, as well as creep him out with how openly the guys he had grown up with had started to perv out over his sister.

To Eric, Ellie would always be the one who took one extra of everything, instead of sharing fairly, and used up all the hot water every time she took a shower. Ellie was the reason he knew about "noogies" and "titty twisters" before he even got to grade school. Although she was small and had plenty of curves, she was also the best athlete in the family and had competed in both gymnastics and cheerleading all the way through high school.

The fact that Eric had been taller than her since Junior High was the only thing that prevented her from satisfying her propensity to inflict physical abuse on him as they had gotten older. Topping out at a few inches over six feet, Eric was now officially the tallest one in the family and after a few seasons of wrestling in high school, he was by far the strongest too. He hadn't been good enough to wrestle in college, but he was academically strong enough to qualify for a bunch of smaller scholarships and his parents were making up the rest.

With his dad's light brown hair and their mom's blue eyes, Eric thought he had grown into a pretty handsome guy once he had filled out. He had escaped to the gym at college as often as the capacity limits would allow and along with the 'all you can eat' meal plan, he now had put on enough muscle to tip the scales at nearly 200 lbs, but he still felt cheated that it hadn't made any difference in his social life at college.

Growing up in a small town, with a bunch of farms, and a high school graduating class of 100 students in a good year, had always meant that his options with girls were severely limited, and his chances of getting any unsupervised time, with any of them, had been pretty much non-existent before he went away to college. The fact that college had proved even more socially isolated than high school ended up being the most ironically painful part of the whole year.

Eric and Ellie's older sister Cassie might have been from another planet. She was two years older than Ellie and was completing a degree in Chemistry at a well known research university in a neighboring state. She had gotten a full-scholarship to cover her undergrad degree and had picked up several smaller grants and scholarships along the way. She was planning to work on a master's degree the following year and the university had already offered her a work-study position that would allow her to work in the lab and assist the professors in their classes in return for covering the cost of her post-grad work, housing and living expenses. Cassie was planning to live on campus year-round beginning next Fall and work on research projects each summer. If all went well, she planned to stay in school and eventually earn a PhD.

Cassie was almost as tall as Eric and had the darkest hair out of any of them, so brown that it almost looked black in the winter. Although not as curvy as Ellie, she wasn't exactly skinny either. Her trim figure still had plenty of curve in her hips and waist, she had a well proportioned bust and like Ellie, had inherited what their mother always called "her" legs. She was however, the only one who had inherited dad's brown eyes and somehow had also managed to get his quiet, serious demeanor to go along with them.

From an early age, Cassie had taken to addressing Eric and Ellie as "children" whenever they got too loud, boisterous or combative, which would have been annoying from one of their parents, but was absolutely grating from their slightly older sibling. Ellie had taken to replying, "okay grandma" in retaliation, every time Cassie said it, and had even convinced Eric at one point to join her in sing-song unison, as it seemed to especially irritate Cassie every single time they did. Cassie's prominent, dark eyebrows would wrinkle up in frustration and eventually she would stomp off in a huff, causing Ellie to hurl a few more taunts at her while laughing at her sister, along with taking delight in her own ability to trigger her response.

Eventually Eric settled down to a more serious bearing as he had hit high school, but he was always somewhere in between the scowling determination of the valedictorian Cassie and the untamed ferocity of the wild-child Ellie. On one hand, Eric always envied Cassie for the glowing respect that even the adults had for her, as she had piled up achievement after achievement while growing up, at the same time he also wished he had half the fun that he suspected Ellie did when no one was looking. Still, it was hard to imagine any three siblings less alike than they were to each other.

"Now kids," their dad glanced at Ellie in the rear view, and shot a look over at Eric beside him, as they pulled onto the state highway. He checked to make sure he had both of their attention while also doing his best to maintain traction on the slick roads. There were large drifts of snow piled high on either side of the highway where the plows had pushed them after the most recent blizzard. "I want you guys to understand that this COVID thing isn't a joke." He paused to merge over into the left lane before continuing. "We didn't want to say anything until you were home from school, but we've moved your mother up to the cabin last week."

"Um...why?!?" Ellie asked in irritation.

"Well, you know that she went in for some tests a few months back," their father's eyes darted to the rear view as Ellie leaned forward with a scowl. "Well, what we didn't tell you was that the doctor has put her on a medication for her heart." He raised his right hand quickly. "It's nothing serious. She's fine, but her doctors feel like she would be at too much risk if she were to contract COVID. He's advised her to self-isolate and avoid contact as much as she can until there's a viable vaccine."

"Wait, so she's going to spend the holidays alone up in the cabin?" Eric was trying to piece together what their dad was telling them.

"Not exactly," their dad tilted his head slightly from one side to the other quickly, an involuntary twitch he had whenever a conversation got uncomfortable. "I'll be going up there as soon as I drop you two off at the house."

"Is that why you're still wearing your mask in the car?" Ellie seemed to be in disbelief.

"Yeah and I hate to ask, but I think you two should put yours back on too." He seemed apologetic. "It's not worth the risk and if I get exposed, then she really will be up there by herself for the holidays."

"So what the hell are we supposed to do?" Eric was a little shocked that Ellie was talking to their dad that way.

"Listen Ellie," They could hear his voice getting a little angry. "You're not little kids anymore." He looked over at Eric for support. "You're all adults now and it's about time you started acting like it. Your mom is broken up enough about the fact that she can't be with you for the holidays and she doesn't need any of you giving her any more reason to feel worse about it. She'd rather risk her own life to see you kids, but I finally talked her into listening to her doctors and I'm not going to let you, or anyone else, make her feel worse about it than she already does."

Ellie, dropped back into her seat in a pouty huff, but Eric reassured his father, "No dad, we get it. It's not worth the risk." He glanced to the back seat to see his sister glaring out the window. "We'll make it work, somehow."

"Well, while we're on the subject," Their dad didn't seem to be losing steam. "My company has furloughed everyone through the end of the year, so it will be a good thing if you're all going to be home next semester. We're going to have to cut back on expenses and manage to stretch every dollar for at least the next few months and maybe longer." He focused on the road ahead. "It's also a good thing because I'll be able to be up at the cabin with your mother, but I'm expecting the three of you to get by with just the essentials and I'm putting you on a tight allowance while you're home." He let out a huff of exasperation. "I managed to earn an accounting degree eating ramen noodles and peanut butter sandwiches while working full-time every summer and part-time up at school. It's about time the three of you realized not everyone has had it as easy as you have." His color was up and he fumed for a bit as the car went quiet.

"No, we get it, dad." Eric spoke at last. "We'll make the best of it. Really we will."

Of course, the bickering had started almost immediately. The fact that their father had put Cassie in charge of the allowance meant that Ellie and Eric had almost no say in what they bought for groceries, and no freedom to spend anything that they didn't take from their own limited savings. It reignited all of the old rivalries they'd had, particularly between the girls, as Ellie accused Cassie of using the allowance as an excuse to 'finally live out her power-trip fantasies' and Cassie to lecture Ellie about the fact that she'd never outgrown her 'spoiled little brat' nature. Within days, the two of them had stopped speaking to one another and Eric had taken to playing video games for hours in the den with his headphones on, just in case they started up again.

Their mother had stocked the fridge with a turkey and the makings of a Thanksgiving dinner before she left and on Wednesday afternoon Eric looked over to see Cassie plop down onto the couch beside him. She looked miserable.

He paused the game he was playing and lifted his headphones off of one ear. "What's up?"

"This really sucks," Cassie sounded defeated. Eric watched her head tilt down and her long dark lashes come together as she closed her eyes for a long moment. Her deep red lips were pressed tightly together and Eric wondered for a second if she was about to start crying.

"Yeah, I know." It came out more sarcastically than Eric had intended. "I mean, of course it does. It's just the situation." He tried to sound conciliatory. "We'll just have to make the best of it."

"That's the worst part of it," Cassie brought her hands up to her face and began rubbing her fingertips up and down across her forehead. "We aren't making the best of it. We're making the worst of it and I don't know how to fix it. Mom and dad aren't here to make it better and I really just want to go back to school and get on with my life." She tilted her head back and sighed in exasperation. "I was so close to being finally out of this shitty little town and all of this stupid bullshit and instead I got sucked right back into the worst possible version of it." She sighed again and ran her fingers back through her long, shiny hair.

"I feel you, sis. I really do. I just don't know what to tell you." As he always did, Eric felt clueless in confronting one of his sister's moods.

"I keep looking at that turkey in the fridge and it just makes me so fucking sad that we're going to let it go to waste," she shook her head. "And what makes it worse is that I don't have the least bit of energy to do anything about it."

"Why can't we just cook it then?" Eric shrugged. "Didn't mom leave instructions in that note on the counter?"

"Are you going to do it?" She looked over at him. "Because I can fucking guarantee you that 'Ellie the Wonder-Bitch' isn't going to, and if she comes out of her room at all, it will just be to give us crap about how bad we fucked it all up." Cassie reached up to pull her hair into a pony tail and as Eric watched her, he got the really uncomfortable feeling that she wasn't wearing a bra under her sweatshirt. As she wrapped the elastic band around her fingertips and threaded her hair through, it looked to Eric like the soft weight of her boobs was jiggling side to side in reaction to her movement.

Eric hadn't really ever thought about his oldest sister as having 'tits' like other girls did, even though it was obvious that she had all the same equipment. It was just the shock of realizing that she wasn't wearing a bra that made him visualize for the first time that under her sweatshirt, his sister had a set of bare boobs jiggling around just like any other woman would. It caused Eric to feel a weird twinge go through him and wonder just how badly he was losing it, shut up in their house now after having been shut up in those dorm for months."Look, maybe I can talk to her," Eric offered. "If you can try not to act like our third parent for a day, maybe I can get her to stop being the rebellious teenager for a few hours and we can try to get through Thanksgiving."

Cassie turned and looked at Eric as though there was something about him that she'd never noticed before. She made a face like someone who had nothing to lose and promised him, "If you can pull it together, I'm in," she shrugged. "I'm just not holding my breath that Ellie will see it the same way."

Cassie got up to walk out of the den and Eric couldn't help watching the smooth mounds of her butt in her sweats as she walked away, trying to decide if she was wearing panties either. He shook his head like a wet dog. He really was fucking losing it.

Ellie didn't answer, when he knocked softly on her bedroom door a few minutes later, and she didn't stir, when he opened it a few inches to look in. She was lying in bed, her back to the door and it wasn't until he came around the foot of her bed that he could see that she was asleep, a paperback novel and her phone on the bed beside her.

Eric sat down gently and reached out to wiggle her shoulder to wake her up. He watched as her eyes fluttered a few times and she eventually rolled over onto her back, to cover her eyes with her forearm, as her breathing changed and she began to wake up. Eric tried not to stare, as the covers pulled down from over the t-shirt Ellie was wearing, and the colder air outside the covers caused her obviously braless nipples to poke noticeably against the thin, cotton fabric.

"What?" Ellie asked quietly from beneath the elbow that still formed a peak over her eyes. Her tone sounded like someone who just couldn't muster the energy to be fully annoyed.

"Hey," Eric tried not to stare at how well his sister's tits were outlined beneath him as he faced her. "How would you feel about calling a truce for Thanksgiving? Just long enough to cook a turkey?"

Ellie peeked out from beneath her elbow and squinted, "Really?" It didn't sound anywhere near as bitchy as Eric thought it might. "Like, all three of us?"

"Yeah." Eric didn't try to sell it. He just stated it matter-of-factly. "It seems a shame to waste all that food and Cassie said she'll help, if nobody gets to be in charge, and no one starts complaining, or fighting." He shrugged. "I kinda feel the same way."

Ellie propped herself up on her elbows and scooted back to sit up against her headboard. Her hair was tousled like a little girl and it took Eric everything he had to focus on her face instead of how her boobs were jiggling around under her shirt as she changed positions. "No one's in charge?" Ellie asked suspiciously.

"That's right. Just three people, cooking Thanksgiving together. No fighting, no bitching, no bossing. For one day. Then we can go back to being miserable alone again. What do you say?"

Ellie looked at him for a long moment before nodding, "Okay. I'll do it."

Eric got up and walked to the door.

"Hey," Ellie said softly. "Thanks for asking." She smiled ruefully. "I was getting tired of being miserable alone. I could use a break." Eric returned the smile from her door and slipped out while trying to erase the mental image of having carried on a conversation with both of his braless sisters.

After stopping by Cassie's room, to let her know that Ellie was in, Eric made his way down the hall to his own room and after making sure the door was locked, fired up his laptop to pull up some porn on the internet. After switching through a few of his favorite sites, he ended up looking at images and gifs of amateur girls flashing their tits and surprised himself how quickly, and explosively, he got off looking at real girls exposing their boobs.

As hard as he tried to focus on the images on his laptop, as Eric shot a huge load of hot cum into his cupped hand, he couldn't help also picturing both of his sisters revealed the same way. As he went in the bathroom he shared with Ellie to wash the puddle of sticky cum from his hand, he looked up in the mirror and mouthed to himself, "You are fucking losing it bro."

Still, he felt much more relaxed after releasing the huge load of pent up cum and went back down to fire up his video game again in the den. As much as the fact that he had cum thinking about his sister's tits had disturbed him, he rationalized that they were the first girls he'd been around in months of sexual deprivation and he'd soon go back to fantasizing about the things he had always gotten off to in the past. It was just a weird season in an already weird year.Thanksgiving ended up being much less horrible than any of them had imagined. They laid out mom's letter and took turns picking which items they'd cook, after picking a draft order by playing rock paper scissors. Eric ended up going last and so eventually got stuck with the turkey when everything else had gotten taken. The girls knew more about cooking than Eric did, but the instructions were pretty straightforward and Eric seemed far less grossed out by the need to remove the extra parts stored in the body cavity and rinsing off the bird than one of the girls might have been.

Their recipes had come with a chart showing when they should start making each dish, based on all of them being ready at the same time, so of course the turkey was the first item to get prepared. The girls helped Eric find the ingredients he needed and the proper cookware to use for roasting the turkey. Ellie had the Thanksgiving Day parade going on the living room TV and even though there were no crowds this year, they still watched it, and joked about how lame and cheesy most of the entries were, not to mention the hosts.

As they were getting around to the last few dishes on the chart, one of Cassie's recipes called for a dash of white wine in the sauce and there was note to look at the back of the vegetable drawer in the fridge. Sliding the drawer all the way out, and emptying the other contents, Cassie discovered an unopened bottle of chardonnay, buried at the bottom of the drawer, with a smiley face drawn on the label, just like their mom had put on their lunches and snacks growing up.

When they'd come home from school they'd sometimes find their mother had baked something, and the house rule was, if it had a smiley face post it on it, the kids were free to help themselves. It made sure that they didn't accidentally dig into something she'd prepared for one of her women's groups, a bake sale, or a pot luck. Even when she made something for one of those reasons, she almost always made a little extra and set it to one side, covered in cellophane and bearing the tell-tale smiley face sticker. You had to beat Ellie to the plate if you wanted to make sure you got some, as she was notorious for eating everyone else' if she got there first, but the smiley face had always been the sign for something special their mom had set aside, just for them.

Cassie turned to show it to Eric and Ellie with a look of mixture of surprise and sentimentality washing over her face. While none of them was legally able to drink yet, and their mother was normally the least likely person on the planet to encourage them to do something wrong, it seemed like she had bent the rules, and secretly surprised them, once again.

Ellie wasn't the least bit emotional about it and started digging through the kitchen drawers to find a corkscrew, but Cassie and Eric convinced her that they should at least hold off until the food was ready, so they could enjoy it with dinner, the way mom had likely intended. Ellie wasn't too happy with the decision, but she was outvoted and didn't seem ready to break the truce, especially when there was still something to look forward to.

The parade gave way to football games before the food was ready and with about a half hour to go, Ellie surprised them by suggesting that they all change into something a little more dressy to enjoy dinner, even if it was just the three of them. With a look of mild surprise Cassie agreed and they took turns going upstairs to change while the other two watched the food.

Eric went first to put on a button down shirt, along with a sport coat, a pair of khakis and some loafers. He didn't feel like wearing a tie and over the last few years he learned that he could get away without one, even going somewhere with his folks. He went downstairs and Cassie had a break in the timing of her dishes, so she dashed upstairs to change next.

When Cassie came back into the kitchen, both Ellie and Eric were floored at the transformation. Cassie had pulled her hair up and fastened it with a clip, applied makeup for what seemed like the first time since they'd been home together and was wearing a fitted, knee length, black cocktail dress, complete with heels and what looked like their mother's pearls. Cassie blushed at their reaction and explained that she'd been invited to the faculty Christmas party that year, in honor of being accepted into the grad program, and had bought the dress to try and look more grown up. After the initial shock wore off, Ellie squinted deviously for a moment, set her chin and whispered, "It's so on!" dramatically at Cassie, right before she dashed upstairs.

Cassie set the table while Eric looked after the resting turkey and read through carving instructions on his phone. He looked over toward Cassie as she came in and out of the kitchen and watched her as she pulled various dishes to take to the table. Eric couldn't help notice how her high heels made Cassie almost as tall as he was, along with the effect they had on shaping her legs and butt as she walked from the room each time. While he had never really been a "leg" man, he was surprised at how much the shape of her calves and butt affected him as she walked from the kitchen each time. The dress was cut to accentuate the curves of Cassie's long body and the deep plunge in the back revealed a large area of exposed smooth skin, as well as the toned lines of her lovely back. Her neck was so much longer than Eric had remembered, and the way her hair was pulled up accentuated how graceful and ladylike she appeared.

Cassie had put on a bright red lipstick, and with the more dramatic accent of her eye make-up. Eric struggled to think of who it was she reminded him of, until he realized that it was the actress who had played Catwoman, in that Batman movie where Bane had taken over the city. He couldn't remember the actresses' name, but his sister's full lips, accentuated by the shade of her lipstick, and the way her make-up highlighted her large brown eyes, in that dress, made her a dead ringer for how the actress had appeared in one of the party scenes from the movie.

At one point it dawned on Eric that Cassie couldn't be wearing a bra with that dress and a large lump formed in his throat. He made an effort to help carry things out to the table to help her, and did his best to conceal the fact that every time she bent forward, his eyes darted to the neckline of her dress to try to catch a glimpse of her cleavage as she did. A few times he had been treated to a peek at the swell of her pale breasts, as the fabric scooped down and she leaned over, and through the thumping of his own heartbeat echoing in his ears, Eric tried not to be too disappointed that he hadn't quite been able to see all the way down to her nipple each time. With as tall Cassie stood in heels, he decided that he'd have to be standing right next to her, or have her bend way over, before he would be able to get the right angle.

Eric found himself reluctant to pull away from helping her, when the timer sounded from the kitchen, and he had to go begin carving the turkey. Pulling up the instructions on his phone, Eric moved the turkey over to the center island in the kitchen, to give himself more room to maneuver, and began to take the turkey apart, step by step. He was carefully slicing the breast meat when Ellie came into the room with a flourish, and practically made him jump by exclaiming "Ta-daaaa!" in her characteristically overly loud voice. Eric looked up just as Cassie came in from the dining room, to ogle at Ellie, decked out in a shimmering green mini-dress that she had worn to prom a few years earlier. Eric remembered the arguments that Ellie had endured with their mom, to get permission to buy and wear it, and in that moment, he finally understood why.

The skirt rode well up Ellie's shapely thighs, and the form fitting dress must have had some sort of elastic property, because it looked like her curves had been poured into the fabric. Ellie had put on a pair of high heels of the type that his friends had always teased him that strippers wore, and her bust looked absolutely huge, as it threatened to spill out over the top of the strapless top. Like Cassie, Ellie had also applied make-up and pulled her hair up. But rather than simple pearls, Ellie had put on the oversized earrings, necklace and bracelets that she'd worn originally with the dress to prom. She had applied green eye makeup, that seemed to sparkle a little as she blinked, a shimmering hot pink lipstick and was doing her best to make a kissing pout and cock her hips as she posed for her siblings.

"Can you believe it still fits!?!" she squealed as she bounced and clapped for herself in delight. She made a quick spin, as gracefully as her dangerously high heels would allow, and exclaimed, "I never thought I'd get to wear this outfit again! I feel like mermaid princess!" She brought a single finger deliberately to her lips and squinted her eyes thoughtfully, "Do you think a tiara would be too much?" before breaking into a delighted giggle and asking, "Can we finally open the wine?"

"Okay, but I want to get a quick picture in front of the table for mom and dad before we do." Cassie insisted. "I don't know if dad knows about the wine and I don't want it in the picture". They had called their parents earlier to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving, but now that they were dressed up and had the table set, Cassie thought it would cheer their mom up to see them all enjoying the holiday. Ellie never needed an excuse to take "selfies" and as Eric had the longest arms, and had the newest phone, they had him hold the camera for the pictures, trying to capture all three of them with the table in the background. Eric tried a couple different angles high and low to get everything in and they finally chose one that looked the most appropriate to text to their parents.

"Can you text me all of those, Eric?" Ellie smiled over at him once the text was sent. "My boobs look awesome in the others and it would be a shame to waste them. I can post them later and tag you guys!" She winked, and ran in tiny high-heeled steps into the kitchen to finish opening the wine. Eric decided she looked less like a mermaid, and more like an 'R' rated Tinkerbell, as he watched her curvy butt and voluptuous thighs, as she bounced away from him in the sparkling green fabric that hugged every curve.

Dinner was surprisingly good, even if everything didn't taste exactly like mom made it. The wine certainly helped, and for a few hours, it was like they all forgot how messed up everything had gotten in their lives.

"Guys, is there any way we can just do this from now on?" Cassie asked as they sat around the table, still piled with food, after they had all eaten their fill.

"Like...make Thanksgiving dinner every day?" Eric joked.

"No, I mean, stop being the little kids we were growing up, and just be like, I dunno, roommates or something for as long as this lasts?" She stumbled to get the idea out.

"So nobody's in charge then?" Ellie asked as she drank some more wine.

"Right," Cassie nodded. "We split the chores, the cooking, the..."

"Allowance?" Ellie suggested.

"Even the allowance," Cassie sighed. "I'm just tired of fighting."

"But you have to chip in for food," Eric emphasized. "You can't spend your part on whatever you want and then just eat the stuff we buy with our part."

Ellie looked like she wanted to be offended, but broke into a guilty grin and relented, "Okay, deal." They all laughed.

"Well these leftovers will keep us for the rest of the weekend if we get them put away, and that will put us a little ahead on finances for this week, if we don't buy any more food." Cassie raised her glass in a little toast to the others. "I'll figure the split later tonight."

Ellie emptied the rest of the wine into her glass and frowned at the small dribble that collected as a result. She eyed the glasses of Eric and Cassie as if she was scheming how to get them to share the last of what they had. Finally she slumped her shoulders in resignation and mumbled, "Guess this party's over before it ever got started" and drained the last swallow of wine in her glass.

"What about that bottle in the box above the fridge," Eric asked.

"What bottle?" Ellie looked over at him in hopeful confusion.

Eric got up and went into the kitchen. He pulled over a chair from the breakfast table and climbed up, to open the cabinet doors above the fridge, as the girls came out into the kitchen. He moved aside a punch bowl and reached behind a cake pedestal to retrieve a tall box from the back corner of the cupboard. Stepping down he held up the dusty box like it was buried treasure.

They read the label and saw that it was an aged cognac that had to be at least ten years older than the age on the box, as it had already been up there for as long as Eric could remember. There was a small card taped to the top if the box and the note said, "Happy Holidays, Frank" inside.

"Must be something dad got at work one year," Cassie mused as she looked at how dusty the box was. Their father would have a glass of wine on the holidays at dinner, and a sip of champagne at New Year's, but they otherwise never saw him have a drink, especially of hard liquor. They had never really even had beer in the house growing up, and never realized until they were older, how different their father was in that regard, compared to their friend's parents. Their mother was the one who made sure they had wine on the holidays and there were a few times that she'd come home from one of her groups a little tipsy, when another of her friends drove, but as a rule, their parents almost never drank at home.

"I don't even know if he remembers that it's still there," Eric shrugged. If he does, I'm pretty sure he'll never drink it.

"What is 'cog-nack' anyways?," Ellie pronounced it phonetically.

"It's a kind of brandy, I think," Cassie suggested. "Something old people drink after dinner while they smoke pipes and cigars or something." She came alongside Eric to get a closer look at the proof printed on the box. "It's stronger than wine, but not quite as strong as whiskey or vodka." With all of the girl's attention on the label, Eric couldn't help take a sidelong peek down Cassie's dress to see if he could catch a better look down her dress. Although it was the best look he'd gotten, her nipples still remained frustratingly just out of view.

Eric could practically see as much of Ellie's tits as he had Cassie's, given how much her dress pushed them up, but as often as Ellie had needed to pull up on her dress throughout the evening, they never quite managed to pop out, much to Eric's disappointment. If he was ever going to get a peek, Eric figured the girls would need to get a lot more careless than they were at the moment, and a little more alcohol was only bound to help his chances. Without waiting for their approval, he opened the top of the box and broke the foil seal over the cork with a thumbnail.

"Wait Eric, do you really think we should?" Cassie protested.

"Yes!" Ellie reached over to grab Cassie's outstretched hand by the wrist. "We should! If mom or dad ever bother to ask, we'll all just pretend like we never saw it!" She nodded enthusiastically as Eric twisted at the cork by hand and the bottle opened.

"Too late now," Eric beamed. He walked over to the cupboard by the sink and pulled down three glasses onto the counter. He poured an inch or so into each one and turned to offer glasses to each of his sisters. He picked up his glass and raised it up. "What should we drink to?"

"To our new roommates!" Ellie squealed before clinking each of their glasses in turn and then throwing back her glass like a shot to drink most of the contents.

Eric and Cassie each took a smaller drink from theirs and Eric tried not to make a face at the strong alcohol taste. He hadn't had much opportunity to drink, other than an occasional beer in the woods with friends over the years, that had been snuck out of one of their dad's garage refrigerators.

Cassie handled her sip of it much more elegantly and gave a small shrug of approval after considering the taste. She took a slightly larger sip and savored it a bit on the way down.

Ellie had already finished hers and was pouring another dollop in her glass when Cassie suggested, "Can we clean up the leftovers before we have another? There's money involved if the food doesn't go bad and I don't want to get sloshed before it gets put away properly."

Ellie squinted and wrinkled her nose, but took another quick drink from her glass and said, "Okay but let's hurry! I don't want to waste my buzz!" She set her glass down and scooted out toward the dining room. Cassie and Eric laughed, drained their glasses and joined her.

Sitting in the living room a half hour later, Eric had taken off his sportcoat, and rolled up his sleeves, rinsing dishes and then settled into the large arm chair that his dad usually filled. The girls had both long since kicked off their shoes. They each had a fresh drink and Eric was feeling pretty numb from the wine and the previous drink of brandy, but didn't want to admit that this was as much as he'd ever had to drink in front of his sisters. Ellie was chattering away, wondering how cognac might taste mix with orange juice, sitting on the floor on the other side of the coffee table and Cassie was simply calm and smiling as she sat legs crossed on the sofa, sipping her drink.

"How are we ever going to top this for Christmas," Cassie pondered at last. "It's going to take a miracle." She looked up and smiled at each of them.

"Ooh, we should wish for Christmas miracles!" Ellie interjected. "Maybe they'll actually come true after how crappy this year's been!"

"If we don't have much money to spend on presents this year, miracles might be the only thing that saves Christmas," Eric laughed.

"Maybe we should try to make them happen for each other," Cassie said thoughtfully. "Like dad said. Let's make the best of what we have."

"Huh?" Ellie looked over quizzically at her sister and Eric casually wondered how much further Ellie's dress would have to slip down before one, or both, of her tits might pop out. He felt his dick pulsing a little at the sight of his well-endowed sister, leaning over the coffee table on her elbows, and at that point was too drunk to beat himself up, for wishing he could get one good look at her tits popping out of her dress, to jack off to, later that night.

"Well, I'm not sure how it would work, but what if we each wrote down three wishes and the other two tried to come up with a way to make one of them happen by Christmas?" Cassie paused. "I mean, we wouldn't be able to spend any real money on them, but we could use our imagination and see what we could come up with." She looked from Eric to Ellie in turn. "At least it would give us something to do for the next few weeks, and keep us from having nothing to do but fight in our spare time."

"But what kind of things should we wish for?" Eric asked. "What are the limits?"

"I have no idea." Cassie shrugged. "But why not ask for what we really want most and see what happens." She stood up and walked over to the cabinet where they kept all of their board games, pulled out the box for Scrabble, removed three pencils and tore off three score sheets. "Okay", she passed out supplies to the other two. "Write the first three things that come to mind that you'd want by Christmas and we'll pass to the left when we're done."

Eric leaned forward to reach the coffee table, shrugged and quickly wrote, "Go on a date with a college girl. Go to a college party. Go to a strip club." He looked at the list and thought about changing the one about the strip club for a moment, in case it made his sisters think that he was a total pervert, but shrugged and realized he was feeling too drunk to care. If it was supposed to be the three things he wanted most, then it was as truthful a list as he could come up with. He passed his list to Ellie and waited for Cassie to finish.

Ellie was done next and passed her list to across the table to Cassie. Cassie took a few more moments to add her third wish and then picked up Ellie's list as she passed hers to Eric.

Ellie laughed out loud as she read Eric's list and gave him a wry grin as she got up to go share it with Cassie. Cassie read the three on Ellie's list that said, "Smoke some weed. Go on a ski trip. Go to Spring Break with my friends." Cassie couldn't help smile, and perhaps it was the alcohol, but she found that she wasn't at all shocked at the list. All three wishes sounded just like Ellie.

When Eric opened Cassie's list he felt an instant pang of regret, that he'd been so blunt and honest about filling out his own. She had listed, "Go to a movie. Go somewhere tropical for Christmas. Not have to be in charge of something for once." He looked up to see Cassie looking a little shocked in his direction and he blushed realizing that they were both reading what he had written. He felt wave of relief pass over him, when Cassie eventually rolled her eyes, smiled and turned to Ellie to say, "Well I guess he's a typical college guy now, isn't he." She turned back to Eric to wag her head in mock disapproval, but she couldn't quite erase the smile that she was fighting to suppress as she did. Cassie leaned over to hand Ellie's list to him and Eric felt a lot better seeing that his list of wishes wasn't that much worse than Ellie's.

"Okay then," Cassie raised her glass. "Guess we've got our wish lists. Here's to Christmas miracles!" They all took a drink.Ellie had taken to sleeping later and later each day, so it was no surprise that it was Cassie who approached Eric first about working on their "miracle". Eric was down in the den playing a video game early the next morning after Thanksgiving when Cassie slid in beside him sipping a hot cup of tea.

The day had turned out clear and sunny, but a good couple of feet of snow must have fallen the night before. They had all agreed to keep the thermostat down to help their parents, but because it was on the ground floor on the North side of the house, the den always felt like the chilliest room in the house.

"It's freezing in here," Cassie sipped from her steaming mug. "How do you stand it?"

"It's not that bad," Eric shrugged without looking away from the game. "It got cold last night. Snowed pretty good too."

"So what did you think of Ellie's list?" Cassie nudged him in the arm to get his attention.

"Well, getting her some weed is a pretty easy fix," Eric started tapping a button repeatedly as the tempo of the game shifted.

"I'm sure it is with your friends," Cassie rolled her eyes, "but I wanted to do something more memorable for her if we could."

"Hey, I'd like to go on Spring Break too, but even if we had the money, there aren't any resorts open and no flights to get there," he shrugged.

"I was thinking the skiing thing might be the best bet, what do you think?" Cassie did her best to sound helpful and collaborative.

"Well," Eric lost focus for a moment as he avoided an incoming threat in the game he was playing, "I think the hill out back is the closest thing to a slope in the area, but I'm not sure trudging up the hill in deep snow a million times for a 30 second ride is what Ellie had in mind."

"Well you're the engineer." Cassie groped around for a solution, but was well out of her comfort zone. "Isn't there some way to rig up a ski lift?"

Eric paused the game to look over at her in sarcastic disbelief. Despite the chilly temperature of the room, he felt a brief flash of heat emanate from his body, and did his best not to look down, as he could see a little bit of skin between each button on her flannel pajama top in his peripheral vision and Cassie was looking him in the eye. "Seriously, you'd need a construction crew, heavy equipment and tons of material to build a ski lift. It would probably be ready sometime in August."

"No, not a ski lift. What do you call the things on the bunny slopes? With the rope?"

"You mean a rope pull?" He sounded less skeptical.

"Yeah, that's it." She nodded. "It wouldn't have to be much. Just enough to pull the three of us up the hill for a couple of hours one afternoon."

"That's not even a crazy idea," Eric mused. He hit pause on the controller, and after thinking it over for a moment, exited the game. "Let's get dressed and go out to the storage sheds."

Their father was an accountant and worked for a company that provided consulting and tax advice to other companies, but he had always done work on the side, particularly during tax season. He was local, and most of the farmers and ranchers knew him, so he ended up doing most of their taxes every year and even helped keep the books for a couple of the larger operations in the area. Early on in his side work, he had ended up settling with some of his clients by taking excess equipment or supplies, in lieu of payment, to help them through hard times. If they weren't able to pay him back within a few months, he usually ended up selling off the goods wherever he could turn a profit over and above what he was owed. Their father always valued the goods a little higher than they could be quick-sold for at auction, but he also had the luxury of time, to find a buyer that the farmer or small business usually didn't. After a while, he had started to get calls from other farms and small businesses that needed to generate cash quickly and he had earned a reputation as someone who dealt fairly.

Their mother had objected when their father started erecting a metal outbuilding on their property, but when he sat her down to show her how much he had made from setting up a second business to handle liquidating the distressed goods and equipment, she reluctantly agreed. Even though theirs was one of the smaller properties in the area, they still had well over 60 acres that they didn't use for farming or livestock. Their property was too hilly for farming but their parents had liked the tree covered slopes and had no interest in developing it as farmland. So when the first building grew to two and then three buildings, the only thing their mother had asked was if the operation could be moved back onto the property and out of sight of the front of the house and the road.

Their father had continued to make money every year, while also acquiring a substantial mix of items that he said 'were just waiting for the right buyer at the right time', but his mother referred to as 'dad's indoor junkyard'".

By ten o'clock he had walked each of the storage buildings with Cassie and Eric had a plan taking shape. He'd located a small tractor, not much larger than a riding lawnmower, along with a large collection of cables that were about 12 feet long, but had a fitting on each end that allowed them to be quickly joined to create any length the user needed. Eric wasn't sure what they were for, but they were plenty heavy for the use that he had in mind. The hardest part was finding a pulley that could be anchored to a heavy object at the top of the slope.

Cassie was getting cold and tired after helping him dig through the storage buildings for two hours, but Eric didn't really object when she asked if she could take a break to go inside. He was caught up in solving the problem and barely noticed when she left. He added fuel to the tractor, cleaned the plugs and checked the fuel lines and filters. Thankfully it had been prepped for storage at some point and after charging the small battery, he was able to get it started a few hours later, even in the cold weather.

Eric went by the house to make a couple of sandwiches, but was the right back out in the storage building as soon as he had fixed them, eating as he walked.

"What's up with Eric?" Ellie asked from the living room. She had slept until almost noon and was washing down a couple of ibuprofen with a cup of coffee. She had the most to drink of any of them the night before and was now regretting the mixture of wine and cognac. It had given her such a fun buzz the night before, but now made her feel like she'd been poisoned.

"Can't tell you," Cassie smiled mischievously. "It's a secret."

"Really?" Ellie perked up. "Is it one of my wishes?"

"I'm not saying." Cassie shrugged but continued to smile. "Which brings me to what we're going to do for his wish."

"That's easy," Ellie laughed. "Order him an inflatable doll!"

"What?" Cassie frowned. "Be serious. We have to try and make at least one of his wishes come true." She laid the list out on the counter.

"Exactly," Ellie explained as she leaned over to point out each item to her sister. "Look at his list: party, date, topless bar." She raised her eyebrows and waited, looking for comprehension on Cassie's part. "Um, it's pretty much girls, girls, girls. Our brother is 18 years old and he's horny." She took a drink of coffee and watched her older sister processing what she had just told her. "I'm not sure what it was like at your campus, but we've been in lockdown since we got to campus. So unless you have a girlfriend that's willing to break the stay at home order to come over and do him, the inflatable love doll is as close as we're gonna get to making that boy's Christmas wish come true." She shrugged and drank some more coffee.

"You don't think maybe he's just feeling like he missed out on what he expected, you know, from going off to college? That he's just lonely, stuck up here with us?"

"Cassie, girls get lonely, boys get horny." She rolled her eyes. "He wanted to go away to college to go to parties, to meet girls who don't know his parents and haven't been in his class every year since he was six, so he could hook up, or ask them out on a date and try to get them to have sex with him. Period. That's what he's missing. I just think he was so drunk that he told us truth when you asked him to write out what he really, really wanted this year for Christmas."

"Poor kid," Cassie looked at the list in a whole new way.

"Uhhh, poor kid?" Ellie lifted up her hands expectantly. "He's not the only one stuck up here not having a sex life."

"Well, not all of us have a sex life to miss, Ellie." Cassie shrugged. "Maybe he's just feeling kind of socially awkward and he's worried that doesn't know how to interact with girls."

"You really think he wants to go to a titty bar to learn to talk to girls, Cassie?"

"Well, maybe not that part," Cassie conceded. "But he had been drinking and your boobs were practically falling out onto your plate all night."

"Oh yeah," Ellie laughed. "That may have been a contributing factor." She didn't seem too bothered by the idea. "So what do you want to do for him, then?"

"Well, I think the party is obviously the best of the three," Cassie suggested.

"But we've got, like what, half a bottle of cognac to last until the end of the world. How are we going to find more alcohol?"

"Well, I did learn a few things earning a degree in chemistry, El. I can figure out the alcohol part, but I'm going to need your help with the rest of the party."

"Like what?"

"Like whatever it is people actually do at these parties," Cassie explained. "You're the only one who knows what we're supposed to do so you have to be in charge of all that. Like the entertainment committee."

"Really?" Ellie looked for confirmation in Cassie's eyes. "I'm in charge of party activities and you're gonna do what I say for once?"

Cassie rolled her eyes. "If that's what it takes to make Eric's wish come true, then I guess I am. Now let's figure out everything we're gonna need."

By the end of the day, Eric felt like he had all of the pieces he needed, as well as a plan for how to engineer the rope pull. He had also found a spool of fishing line which would be useful to help him plan his line and measure the distance he'd need to cover with the cable lengths.

As the afternoon faded toward dusk, another layer of heavy weather blew in and he could tell more snow was on its way. Cold and physically exhausted, Eric walked down the hill, past the storage buildings and on toward the house. After a long, hot shower he dressed in some sweats and came downstairs to find that Cassie had fixed him a plate of leftovers. He took the plate into the den and settled into the couch to watch some TV as the girls were watching a movie in the living room.

He hadn't realized that he had fallen asleep on the couch, but he must have as he woke up to Ellie shaking his shoulder gently. The room was dark except for the TV flickering and his empty plate was still on the coffee table where he had left it. He had lain down on his side facing the TV, and at some point must have drifted off.

"Wake up sleepy head," Ellie whispered in a sing song voice, leaning over to bring her face close to his ear.

"What time is it?" Eric squinted over at her and quickly realized that he could see down her top where her full tits were hanging beautifully and naturally in the shadows formed by her body in the dim light. Even half awake, he felt a stirring of his cock in his loose sweats and cursed his failure to have turned on the lamp beside him before he had drifted off. If it had been on he might have gotten a clear view down her shirt and maybe even seen her nipples.

"It's a little after ten," she whispered. "I didn't think you should sleep on the couch all night." She lifted back up and sat on the edge of the sofa cushions as he rubbed his eyes and yawned.

"I must have been pretty tired," Eric admitted. "I'll get up in a second." He laid his head back down and closed his eyes for a moment.

"Okay," Ellie rubbed his shoulder like he was a little kid. "If you're too tired tonight, do you think we can talk about our present for Cassie tomorrow sometime."

"Sure, just let me know what time," Eric mumbled.

"Well, if I'm not up by the time you have lunch will you come wake me up?" Ellie asked.

"Sure, sure...," Eric mumbled.

"You're the best," Ellie leaned back over to hug the side of his body. "Talk to you tomorrow." She stood up and left.

Eric had been in danger of drifting off to sleep just a few moments earlier, but as Ellie left the room, both his mind and his dick had come fully awake as he processed the memory of how her big, firm tits had been pressed into his arm and shoulder along with the feeling of her warm, curvy body as it had been laid out over his own during the long moments of the hug she had given him. Sitting up, he let out a breath to release the tension of the moment and rose to climb the stairs up to his room and hope that he didn't run into either of the girls before he got to his room, as the tent in the front of his sweats would be impossible to hide.

By the time Eric took a break for lunch the next day he felt like he'd climbed the slope of the hill above their house at least a hundred times. The lengths of cable weren't that heavy by themselves, but trying to lessen the number of trips up the slope, he had started taking three or four at a time. Trudging through the snow, uphill, with the extra weight, had begun to take its toll after the first hour. Cassie had come out to help him, but she could only manage to carry one length at a time and she stopped often to take a break.

"Sorry, I've been spending most of my time in a lab over the last few months, Eric." She explained between heavy breaths. "I go for a short run a couple times a week, but doing this kind of thing in the cold is just kicking my butt."

Still, every trip she made was one less length he had to carry up the hill and he was grateful for any help she gave him. Plus they had managed to tamp down a narrow path with their repeated trips and it was getting easier to walk without having to trudge through a foot or so of snow with each step. Even so, around 11:30 Cassie asked if he was hungry for lunch and offered to make some sandwiches for the both of them. She said she'd have them ready if he was ready to head down to the house in the next twenty minutes. She was clearly exhausted and much preferred the task of fixing lunch than carrying another length of cable up the snowy slope.

By the time Eric had gotten the last cable laid out on the hill and walked down to the house, Cassie had finished eating and Ellie, drinking coffee at the kitchen table, told Eric that she'd gone upstairs for a shower and a nap.

"What exactly are you guys doing out there?" Ellie asked as she watched Eric tear into the turkey sandwich and chips that Cassie had left on a plate for him.

"Just making miracles happen," Eric winked at her before taking another huge bite.

"Well, speaking of miracles," Ellie segued neatly. "Have you thought about what we might do for Cassie's gift?"

"Well, the movie would be pretty easy." He tilted his head thoughtfully as he chewed. "We could use dad's computer projector and put up a screen outside. I don't know about the putting someone else in charge thing. It seems like she's getting pretty comfortable letting other people take the lead lately," he grimaced. "I'd love to go somewhere tropical too, but nobody is going anywhere this Christmas if you've looked at the news lately."

"Yeah, I thought the movie thing might be easier, but you two make it sound like you're building the space shuttle out there. It feels like a movie would be kind of..."

"A letdown?" Eric offered.

"Yeah, like she deserves better or something." Ellie shrugged.

"Well, but if we're doing something 'better', I'm gonna need some help." Eric looked at her pointedly. "I've already got my hands full and I'll help, but I can do this stuff all by myself."

"Oh no, I'll totally help." Ellie said hurriedly. "Just tell me what you want me to do." She put her hand on his forearm and smiled broadly at him. Eric had the uncomfortable feeling she was manipulating him, but he had to fight back the tingle that shot through him as some very wrong images flashed through his mind, hearing her say it, along with the twinkle in her eye as she squeezed his arm.

"Okay," Eric sighed. "Put on something warm. We can go out to the sheds after lunch and see what we can figure out." The truth was Eric didn't much feel like climbing the hill again that afternoon now that he'd gotten a chance to sit down for lunch and Cassie had obviously bailed on him. He also felt himself warm up watching Ellie scurry up the stairs in her flannel PJ bottoms, her cute butt moving seductively under the soft fabric. He sighed to himself again as he turned his attention back to the rest of his sandwich. He really was losing it.

The solution to the creating somewhere 'tropical' ended up being much easier than creating a ski lift. Eric had earlier spotted a couple of huge rolls of clear plastic wrap that looked like they were used to wrap pallets of goods for shipping. He knew he had also seen a large supply of irrigation PVC in one of the other sheds and went looking through some boxes around them to confirm they contained the different types of fittings that he could use to connect them together. It was Ellie who had spotted the heat lamps and fixtures that were intended for an incubator, or some kind of livestock nursery. When Eric also found a large blue roll of new plastic sheeting designed as a holding pond liner and a pallet of bags of sand, he knew he had a good solution.

"How are your painting skills?" He turned to Ellie.

"Like houses...or flowers?" Ellie asked. "I haven't painted anything since grade school."

Eric explained his plan. First they'd build a large frame out of PVC and then wrap it in the plastic sheeting to insulate it. "Basically like making a big greenhouse." Then he'd figure out a way to add the incubator heat lamps to help increase the temperature with the warm orange yellow light they emitted. He would have to find a way to allow the lamps to vent excess heat from the back side of the fixture so it wouldn't melt the plastic sheeting, but he had some ideas and plenty of materials. Lastly, they'd dig a shallow hole to create a pond with the blue liner and dump bags of the sand around the edges to make the 'beach'.

"So what's the paint for?" Ellie asked.

"Decorating the walls to look like a tropical paradise," he smiled. "We just need light blue, green and sand colored craft paint."

"Wait!" Ellie's eyes lit up. "The float we made for cheerleading my senior year, for the homecoming parade!" She trotted off to the garage and Eric followed. Sure enough, there were still a bunch of large craft paint containers stored on a storage shelf against one wall, along with brushes and rollers, all leftover from the paper mache float they'd created on a flatbed trailer a few years back. Eric helped her move the containers inside, into a closet in the hallway, to warm them up as he was afraid the paint might have frozen in the cold garage.

"So if you'll help me build and wrap the frame, I can take care of the heat and pond parts if you can paint the inside to look tropical." Eric ticked the elements off on his finger tips. "Is it a deal?"

"Is it okay if I use some other stuff besides paint?" Ellie asked.

"What did you have in mind?"

Ellie led him to the back of one of the sheds where a bunch of old office furniture was stacked up, filling up the back space for at least 10-12 feet. "Look what I found in the back," she crawled up onto one of the desks. Eric jumped up to join her and smiled to see the collection of fake plants grouped together behind the stacks of desks, chairs and filing cabinets. "Will you help me get them out?" she asked.They agreed to start work the following afternoon and called it a day. Eric was tired from all of the work he'd put in over the last couple of days, but excited in a way that he hadn't been since the school year started. He was solving problems, getting creative and working out in the fresh air instead of sitting in front of the TV.

Better yet, when he was focused on the two projects, Eric wasn't thinking about looking down one of his sister's tops or whether they were wearing underwear at that moment. He had been jacking off more than usual over the last couple of days, hoping it would diminish his sex drive and help him control the images that kept popping into his head, but he found that as much as he tried to focus on something else, he kept conjuring up fantasies about his sisters each time, at the exact moment he came.

It only took an hour to join the cables the following morning. Eric anchored the pulley to a stout tree at the top of the slope and wrapped the inner groove of the pulley wheel with a couple of layers of a textured rubber strip to help give it some grip as the cable would be allowed to press into the thick rubber layers under tension. He had done the same with the rim of the spare he had waiting to swap out with the existing back tire on the small tractor. Eric was glad that he had talked through the tropical paradise project with Ellie before he rigged up the rope pull, and after adding a plow attachment to the tractor, pulled it around the back of one of the sheds, plowed away the accumulated snow in a rectangle and dug out a shallow pond area along one side of the space.

Eric then backed the tractor into position at the bottom of the cable run, swapped out the right rear tire for the modified rim he would use as the lower pulley, wound the cable around the rim and then inched the tractor forward on its existing tire until he had a firm tension on the cable. He had placed some plywood on top of the cleared piece of frozen ground beneath the rear axle, and using a couple of hand jacks, proceeded to jack up the rear of the tractor until the remaining tire was a few inches above the ground. He placed some homemade wood chocks under the front tires and gave the tractor a hard push from every angle to make sure that everything was steady. He couldn't get the body of the tractor to move even an inch from side to side and the tension on the cable, along with the wedges under the front tires, kept it from being able to move forward down the gentle slope, even a tiny bit.

Starting the small diesel engine, Eric went up to the garage to retrieve his old snowboard and boots while it warmed up. Once he was in position, he reached over to put the tractor in low gear and watched the cable begin to move in a slow steady turn around the rear rim as the other wheel slowly spun a few inches off the ground. Grabbing onto a passing closure on the lower part of the cable in his gloved hands, it began pulling him easily up the slope at a steady, gentle pace. Eric had cleared any debris from below the cable as he had connected each length and his snowboard smoothed out his earlier footprints as he rode up the hill. The path through the trees worked well and he didn't notice any slippage on the cable, even as he plowed through some of the more uneven patches of snow and small drifts.

Reaching the point where he had mounted the pulley to a tree at the top of the slope a minute or so later, Eric released the cable and swung his board around until he could slide at an angle into a clearer part of the slope to begin weaving his way down the open hillside in wide sweeping arcs. Even though the ride only lasted 20 or 30 seconds, Eric was beaming with pride and pleasure at the thrill of sliding down the small hill and immediately grabbed the cable to ride back to the top of the slope. If possible, it was even more fun the second time, as Eric picked a better line and finished with a wide sweeping arc, and a good amount of speed, before pulling up short behind the tractor, throwing up a small spray of snow.

Each time he rode up, the path to the top got smoother as he focused on making it better with his board, widening and straightening it with each pass. He had ridden down at least a dozen times before satisfying himself that the contraption worked perfectly. He called Cassie on his cell phone and had time to make a couple more runs before he saw her come around the corner of the shed below him as he rode down from the top of the slope.

Cassie threw her hands up to her face in disbelief as she watched her brother slide down the hillside to pull up in a spray of snow beside the shed, his arms raised in triumph like he had just medaled in the Olympics. She bounced up and down in excitement and ran over to wrap Eric up in a huge hug. She couldn't believe he had pulled it off!

"This is frickin' amazing Eric! I can't believe you got it to work!" She finally released him from the tight hug. "You're a genius!"

Eric blushed and beamed with pride. "I can't believe we never thought of this before, Cass!" He looked back up the slope. "I mean it's not a black diamond run, but I forgot how much fun it was even to have this little ride. Watch this!" He demonstrated being pulled up the cable line and used a small bump on the hill to get a tiny bit of air as he came down the middle of the slope with as much speed as he could. He pulled up at the bottom in a bigger spray of snow and couldn't repress the huge smile that wouldn't leave his face.

Shutting the tractor down, they went back to the house for lunch and Eric laughed when Cassie pointed out that their mom would have a fit if she saw what he'd built and they both agreed that their dad would make them take it down as soon as they saw it. Even if their father would think it was cool, they knew he'd still make them take it down, even if just to keep his mother from worrying and complaining about it until they did.

Eric and Cassie conspiratorially cautioned each other to quiet down as they entered the house and tried not to look guilty when they entered the kitchen to find that Ellie was already awake and eating a pop tart while drinking coffee at the table.

"What's up with you two?" She asked looking over the rim of her mug as she took a sip of coffee.

"Oh nothing," Cassie said breezily. "Just acting silly". She shot Eric a look of admonition and held a finger to her lips as she circled behind Ellie on her way to the fridge. "Turkey sandwiches okay for lunch, Eric?" She started pulling leftovers from the fridge.

Once Cassie had gone upstairs after lunch, Ellie leaned over to ask Eric softly, "Was that about my surprise?" She flashed him a devious smile.

Eric feigned shock. "You know I can't tell!" he frowned at her playfully. "How would you like it if I blabbed about what we're doing?"

"Can't believe you're holding out on me!" she wrinkled her nose. "But is it really good?" She smiled mischievously. When Eric wouldn't reply, she shrugged, "Well at least you can keep a secret."

Once Ellie got dressed, they made their way out to the spot Eric had laid out for what they started calling, 'Operation Paradise'. Laying out the PVC, it all started to come together pretty quickly as they weren't bothering to glue the joints together. Eric figured they'd have to take it down at some point and that way they could just pull the PVC apart and put it back where they found it. Wrapping the frame took longer than Eric thought it would, but once they'd gotten the first couple of laps around the frame completed, the film was pretty well anchored to the frame and except for needing ladders and some creative ways to keep tension on the wrap while they covered the peaked roof, the process went reasonably well. A gust of wind came along and threatened to carry the entire enclosure away, but Eric managed to keep it from flipping over and had Ellie hold it down from the inside until he had a chance to find some stakes and wire to anchor the lightweight structure to the ground.

Once it was in place, they ran another layer of plastic wrap around the bottom of the frame with enough extra material that they were able to pack some snow on top of the plastic around the outside and create a seal against the wind. Eric carefully cut an entrance with a utility knife and finished it with a PVC frame that he attached with a heavy application of duct tape. He created a flap to cover the seams on the outside, along with a latch system with some wire, to keep the door from opening and closing in the wind.

Ellie helped him to carry in and open the section of pond liner and they spread it evenly over the ground, including the 'lagoon' pit he had dug out with the tractor. They then carried in a few of the fake potted office plants to weight down the corners. Eric helped carry Ellie's painting supplies over to the site in a wheelbarrow before going back to load up on what would be the first of many loads of sand bags.

After the first few trips, Eric stopped to rest for a minute as he watched Ellie applying blue acrylic paint in a thin wash across one 'wall' of the enclosure. The wrinkles in the wrap caused the light from outside to resolve into a blurry impressionistic painting and the translucent color of paint applied across it looked almost like a stained glass effect. He sat down for a moment on a stack of sand bags and unzipped his coat as he had started to feel warm.

Eric was watching Ellie stretch to apply paint onto the underside of the ceiling above her with a roller when it dawned on him that she was only wearing her sweater. He had been caught up in admiring her how nice her butt looked in the jeans she was wearing and the nice curve of her hips as her sweater rode up that it took him a moment to process that she had taken her coat off.

He looked over at the low afternoon sun coming in all along the south facing length and he realized that it had already warmed up substantially in the enclosed space. On a whim, he went to retrieve a wall thermometer he had seen hanging in one of the sheds and bringing it back into the space watched it slowly rise from the high twenties until it topped out at almost fifty degrees! He showed it to Ellie before they set it near the door and Eric began spreading the bags of sand around the edge of the 'lagoon'. He ended up making a few more trips to the storage building but eventually covered the rest of plastic sheet, all the way to the edges, with a couple of inches of sand to form the 'beach'.

By that time, the sun was getting low and Ellie had completed most of the 'sky' color on the walls and ceiling. She needed Eric's help to get the highest parts of the peaked roof, but when they stepped back to admire the result, they had to admit that the natural blue of the film with the help of the paint made for a really awesome effect. Only the vague shapes of the world and splotches of light and dark came through the 'sky' they had created.

Cassie cooked dinner that night after her nap and they all agreed that they'd had enough turkey to last them until next Thanksgiving. They each had a small drink of cognac after dinner and agreed to pool half of their money from the next week's allowance to buy food. They got online and figured out a menu and managed to do it without arguing. Cassie offered to go shopping for food in the morning as they only allowed a limited number of customers in the store at one time anyway. She agreed to stick to the list they'd made and didn't get any arguments from Eric or Ellie.

The cognac was a nice remedy for the sore muscles and tired joints they had from the work they'd been doing and Eric was asleep by nine o'clock, contented with how both of the projects were going.

As soon as Cassie pulled out of the driveway to go shopping the next morning, Eric headed out to the storage sheds to pack up the lights and fixtures he was planning to use for the project he was building with Ellie. After installing the bulbs in a couple of the long industrial fixtures, Eric realized that there was no way that the PVC frame would support even a small fraction of the weight of the lights he was planning to use.

He walked back out to the enclosure and looked at the structures around it to try and come up with an idea. Eric stepped inside to look at the frame under the plastic and checked to see that it was already just over forty degrees under the canopy, even with the limited amount of sun exposure they'd already had that morning. It was at least 15 degrees warmer than it was outside and without the wind chill effect, it felt even warmer than that.

Eventually, the solution involved creating a plywood frame for the fixtures and running a rope to suspend it over the enclosure by anchoring it to a large tree on one end of the structure and one of the storage buildings on the other. Using the ladder, Eric cut out an opening in the roof and modified the PVC to create a rectangle for the frame to seat on before adjusting the tension on the ropes until he had gotten the frame suspended almost weightlessly on top of the opening. He carefully installed fist one, than the other, fixture and used duct tape to seal off all of the edges between the plywood, the PVC and the plastic sheeting. Using some of Ellie's paint, he painted the plywood and duct tape blue. It was obviously a couple of large industrial light fixtures, but there wasn't much more he could do about it than he already had.

Eric was excited about having done so much in one morning and couldn't wait to show Ellie when she came out to help. As he walked back to the house he stopped to look back at where he knew both the tractor for the rope-line and 'Operation Paradise' were located and was doubly proud that neither of the projects were visible from the house, or each other, based on how he had placed them. Cassie had already unloaded the groceries when he walked into the kitchen and just smiled when Eric refused to disclose what he had been working on.

"Well, I don't want to ruin the surprise by poking around out there, but I was wondering if you could find a few things for me out in the garage or the sheds when you have a chance". She handed Eric a list including a propane tank, a burner, copper tubing and some other items and Eric agreed to help her.

As he looked at the list, it occurred to him that many of the same things would work to make a hot water heater for the 'lagoon' if he could also locate a water pump. He hadn't planned on heating the water, figuring it would pick up some heat from the temperature under the canopy from the lights, but he realized that the ground underneath would probably keep the water pretty cold despite what the air temp inside was like. He also started to worry about what the impact the lights would have on their parent's utility bill, even if they only ran it for a short time.

Ellie came down while Eric was still eating lunch and he was surprised to see that she was already fully dressed. She had some coffee and cereal while he finished eating and seemed really excited about getting to work after lunch.

While Ellie got to work painting after admiring the solution for suspending the lights, Eric went foraging for the supplies that Cassie had requested. In rummaging through the storage buildings, Eric also found an old diesel generator that looked like it hadn't been used in a long time. He hadn't been worried about using diesel for the tractor because he knew that the diesel tank in one of the sheds was mostly full and that it most likely wouldn't be good to use past February or April. His father always kept extra fuel on hand in case of power failures, along with running the machines they used around the property. Their full-sized truck ran on diesel too so their dad would make sure to use all of it every season before it went bad, but the truck was up at their cabin now and Eric figured that if he didn't use it up over the winter it would just end up going to waste.

After bringing Ellie everything he could find, Eric filled up the generator, checked that it would start, then used a dolly and fashioned a crude sled from plywood to get the generator in to place between the enclosure and one of the buildings. He slid the generator up onto an old pallet he'd found to keep it up off the ground and connected the power cables from the light fixtures. After firing up the generator and getting it to run steadily after it was warmed up, he switched on the power and looked over to see the amber glow dully shining through the painted plastic wrap.

Eric ran around to the door and went in to stand under the light and heat emanating from the fixtures above them. Ellie had looked up from where she was working when the lights had come on and walked over to stand beside Eric as he looked up at his handiwork. Eric checked the thermometer and it was hovering right around forty-five degrees at the moment, but closer to the light it was indeed starting to feel almost tropical. Eric took off his coat and then his sweater to stand under the lights in his long sleeve t shirt. He could feel the gentle warmth on his skin and on the fabric of his shirt. Ellie put down her paintbrush to pull off her own sweater and Eric glanced over to see her t shirt hike way up her side, as it clung to the inside of her sweater, before her hand caught it and pulled it back down. Eric was left with the memory of her creamy skin exposed under the glow of the light and was looking up nonchalantly again when Ellie managed to get her sweater finally pulled over her head after it had hung up on the clip of her pony tail.

"Wow, this feels amazing, Eric!" Ellie stretched up her hands and tilted her face back to get the full effect of the lights. Eric smile down at her and the lovely mounds of her tits under the lighter fabric of her t shirt. He found he was disappointed that he could see the straps of her bra showing through.

Eric admired the progress that Ellie had made painting the walls while he had been working and then left her to go figure out the water heater portion of his plan. The idea of running the water through a kettle over a propane burner seemed a bit difficult to monitor and manage from inside the enclosure. After thinking through some of his other options he looked up to see the air above the heat lamps shimmering against the cold of the afternoon sky.

Looking at the length of soft copper tubing he had pulled for himself, he quickly and carefully bent it into a series of 'S' shapes and went to find some hoses, clamps and fittings that would help him connect the tubing and the pump. He ran a hose from the garage out to the enclosure and began filling the 'lagoon', noting that it was now almost seventy degrees inside and smiled to see Ellie cutely wiggling her well shaped butt, dancing to the music on her earbuds as she painted leaves and trees on the far wall.

Once he had his hoses secured to the tubing and the pump, Eric used a long piece of PVC to carefully lift the copper tubing and place it on top of the light fixtures he'd installed earlier. The metal shrouds that covered the tops of the lights were allowing the excess heat of the lamps to escape into the cold air above them, Eric was just hoping that they would conduct enough heat into the copper tubing to raise the temperature of the water flowing through it. Using the ladder from the inside, Eric carefully pulled the hoses through and taped them off to the PVC that ran down the side of the structure. Eric connected the pump and ran the suction end into the water before running to the garage to turn off the tap, as the water coming out of the hose had almost overflowed the hole he had dug.

It took a while to fish the cable for the pump through and connect it to the generator, but once the small electric pump started running, Eric was rewarded with the appreciably warmer temperature of the water coming back from the coil once he went inside to check the result. He checked the thermometer and it was now at 76 degrees. Leaving his coat on, Eric quickly went back outside and carefully sealed all of the openings her had created from the outside to keep any additional heat from escaping. He checked the fuel gauge on the generator and was delighted to see that running it for as long as they had, had barely made a dent in their first tank of fuel.

Satisfied with the results of his work, he cleaned up all of the extra material and tools he had left laying around and used the wheelbarrow to take it all back to the storage sheds. On his way back he loaded up four of the largest office plants he could into the empty wheelbarrow and wheeled them out to the enclosure. Parking outside the door flap, he set them down and went back for another load. After a few more trips he had managed to get a sizable collection of them lined up outside the entrance and grabbed one that looked like a small tree and backed it carefully into the enclosure, being careful not to damage the doorway.

Turning around, Eric nearly dropped the plant on his feet at the sight of Ellie dancing around painting in nothing but her underwear. Her back was turned to the door and Eric simply stared in shock at the sight of his curvy sister's bare legs and back only broken up by the cotton fabric of her panties and the strap of her bra. Her hips were rocking from side to side with the beat of whatever she was listening to and her butt was making a sexy wiggle, broken up by an occasional slow grind as she responded to the rhythm of the song in her headphones. She bent down to fill the cup she was holding with some more paint and he was treated to the fabric of her panties stretched tight over her well rounded ass and a brief peek at the mound that got revealed between her legs as she reached down. He could see the dangling lusciousness of her large tits held in place only by the fabric of her bra, revealed beautifully as she extended her arms toward the paint container.

Eric could feel his heart thumping heavily in his chest, the sound of it filling his ears and stood frozen in the spot trying to decide if he should try to exit quickly before she caught him. In a split second Ellie stood up to resume painting and looked back to see him standing there. Instead of trying to cover herself, she beamed a smile at him in delight and shouted way too loudly, "Oh my god! I feel like I'm at the beach already!" She turned back to resume painting and continued to dance and gyrate, just as she had been when he walked in.

Eric walked stiffly over to a corner where Ellie had already painted in greenery and set the plant down. Ellie looked over as he backed away and gave him a vigorous thumbs up of approval even as she continued dancing, her full boobs bouncing seductively and her flat stomach pushing in and out as her hips rocked back and forth.

Eric tried to remain casual as he walked the remaining plants into the enclosure, one or two at a time, arranging most of them along the walls that Ellie had already completed. He would sneak glances at his almost naked sister whenever he thought he could do so without getting caught, but the few times Ellie looked over, it was to nod in approval and smile at what he was doing. After he had brought the last of the fake plants inside, he took off his own coat and sweater and was shocked to see that the temperature was a balmy 84 degrees now, even as the sun was still barely above the tree line to their south.

Ellie had completed making a circle of the enclosure and put down her paints to come help Eric place the remaining plants around the space. She seemed to take a lot of pleasure in arranging them to create just what she was looking for. Eric had to admit that she had a flair for making the different shapes and heights of the potted plants work with the background she had painted along the walls. He was only too happy to help her, lifting the larger plants and moving them where she indicated and watching her bend, stoop and ponder coquettishly in her bra and panties, considering the placement of every piece, like a jigsaw puzzle where only she could see the picture on the box.

As cool and calm as he tried to act on the surface, he was doing all he could not to openly stare at his sister's cleavage threatening to burst over the cups of her lacy bra and the way the thin fabric of her panties left almost nothing to his imagination as the smooth swell of her thighs, butt and hips made an intoxicating dance in and around him as she shifted plant after plant until she had things just the way she wanted them. Her perfume created a halo of scent everywhere she went and it was difficult to stand up close to her without feeling a little drunk and off balance. Eric soon found himself feeling overly warm, sweating in the humid air and it wasn't just the actual temperature that was affecting him. Eventually he also peeled off his shirt and walked around shirtless as he helped her.

"You should have told me we could wear a bathing suit today," she said fanning herself at one point. "That water looks like it would be nice to jump into at this point, but we'd probably freeze to death in our wet undies walking back to the house," she pouted.

Eric tried to appear sympathetic, but was fighting a mental image of her wet and sleek in their makeshift 'lagoon', her underwear becoming transparent as they became wet. His throat felt tight and constricted, unable to allow him to speak properly. Eventually he managed to squeak, "I'm surprised we got everything up and running today. I didn't think we'd get this far until sometime tomorrow honestly."

"I know," she made a flourish with her hands as they admired their progress. "Just a few more touches tomorrow and I think we'll be ready to show Cassie her surprise."

Eric nodded in agreement and got dressed first as he went out to shut down the generator and cover it with a tarp he pulled from one of the sheds. He laughed to see that Ellie was literally steaming as she walked out of the enclosure, still putting on her coat. She was exceptionally bouncy and joyful as they walked home, chattering about the lawn furniture she thought they should bring over and the decorative touches she still wanted to add. She talked about getting up early the following day to work on the project and how much she couldn't wait to show Cassie the finished result.

Eric tried to focus on what she was saying as they walked, but he kept getting distracted by his memories of Ellie in her underwear and the possibility of spending a few more hours in their tropical oasis tomorrow in just their swim suits. Christmas seemed a long way off and he wondered if those few precious hours the next day were going to be his last chance to see her that undressed until they unveiled their 'gifts' to one another on Christmas Day.

As Eric showered and the girls cooked dinner, Ellie was struggling with the same concerns. The last couple of days with Eric and the magic of what they had created together had been the one bright spot in her life since Thanksgiving. The idea that they had to shut it down and keep it a secret for the next few weeks seemed like such a waste. Even though Cassie had requested the tropical paradise, Ellie couldn't imagine having to stay cooped up in the house for the next few weeks knowing she could be enjoying the bright colors and warm comfort of lounging around in their oasis the whole time. She knew she couldn't operate the equipment that Eric had put together to make it all work and there was no way to keep the secret from him even if she did.

In truth, half the fun of the day had been prancing around in her underwear in front of a boy again, even if he was only her brother. Ellie missed the attention she got from men and had to admit that it gave her a thrill to strip down to her bra and panties in the warm, steamy air, knowing at some point that Eric would walk in and see her like that. Part of her was a little disappointed that he didn't react more visibly when he did find her. She'd done her best to act casual about it, but secretly, she'd enjoyed dancing around making a show of it as they'd worked together. She wondered if it affected him at all to see her like that and found it a little weird that she secretly hoped that he did. Even if she could run the oasis by herself, part of what she was looking forward to was Eric being there to share it with her.

Ellie and Cassie talked about their plans for Eric's 'party' and Cassie said she'd be ready on her end in the next day or so. She asked if Ellie had come up with the 'entertainment' and Ellie waved it off like she had it handled. When Ellie suggested that it was going to be so hard to wait for Christmas to trade their 'presents', she was surprised how quickly, and enthusiastically, Cassie had agreed with her. Without revealing anything about their secret projects with Eric, both agreed that when they'd started working on their ideas after Thanksgiving, they thought that it would take a couple of weeks to be ready and were both dying to show the other what they'd been working on.

They heard Eric coming down the stairs to eat and quickly shut down their conversation, but as the three sat eating at the kitchen table there was a palpable excitement around the meal. They shared their after-dinner drink and Ellie wasn't the only one who had grown concerned with how low their supply of cognac had become in the days since Thanksgiving. As they joked and reminisced about past Christmases, they enjoyed the relaxing effect that the cognac had on them and when Cassie of all people had suggested that they splurge on another small drink, Eric and Ellie both quickly agreed.