Merry Day after Christmas! Actually, I’m writing this post on Christmas day. We just put our turkey breast in the sous vide for its five-hour cook. I’ve turned up the temperature from 145o  to 150o. Mrs. Lion found the turkey too juicy at the lower temp. According to my reading, the higher temperature will be more like the traditional drier meat she’s used to.

We don’t have many holiday traditions beyond the big turkey dinner. I’m getting a Christmas “present” I’m sure not to like: a spanking. Mrs. Lion started to spank me on Christmas Eve, but I had to stop because my shoulder was hurting too much. It had been sore all day. She made it very clear that I would be getting a very thorough beating today. I’ve earned it. She says I’ve been interrupting her. She hates that. Also, I forgot to return my coffee mug to the kitchen, another punishable sin. She doesn’t need any of Santa’s elves to help her get me to yelp. She’s very good at that by herself.

Could this be the start of a new Christmas tradition: turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and a very sore lion bottom?

I’m not complaining. After all, it was my idea. Over twenty years ago, soon after we first me, I asked her to spank me. She agreed and has never gone back on her word. There have been times when I’ve regretted making that request, usually when I feel her strapping me down on our spanking bench.  Too late, Lion. I know. Am I sorry that I asked her? Nope, not at all. As weird as it sounds, I must admit that spanking has been a positive force in our relationship.

No, I’m not claiming that I have behavioral problems that need maternal correction. I’m an adult who is in good control of his life. I know that a lot of men claim that they need their wives to spank them to correct behavioral problems. I’m not in that camp. I find it hard to believe a woman would marry a guy that incapable of controlling his behavior.

We’re a little different. Like those other guys, I want my wife to spank me. I don’t think it’s mental pathology. It’s a pretty harmless sexual kink. It’s complicated in that I don’t get aroused when I’m spanked. I’m aroused by the knowledge that I will be spanked and the memories of past sessions. There’s more to it than that, a lot more.

In addition to that sexual kink, it turns out that spanking can also be a helpful tool for balancing relationship power. Our marriage is fairly traditional. I pay the bills and make most of the decisions. It’s the way Mrs. Lion likes it, and it feels very natural for me. The problem with it is that Mrs. Lion loses her equality. A “Father Knows Best” marriage is a benign dictatorship. Mrs. Lion is certainly not up for that.

Spanking me in a BDSM context doesn’t transfer any power to her. She’s doing something I want. This is also true when she enforces the trivial rules that earned me most of my paddlings. Forgetting to put a coffee mug in the sink or not reminding her of punishment day, don’t rise to the level of causing her any real angst. They just provide a “reason” to spank me, something that I want.

She likes the game of catching me breaking a rule. She loves games. The outcome is a sore bottom for me. It’s a win-win. To our surprise, we discovered that I actually changed when we played this game. I stop breaking the rules that get me spank. Well, I mostly stop. When I slip, I’m back on the spanking bench. I rarely slip again…for a while.

When we started with the rules, I hoped that Mrs. Lion would expand them to include things that really bothered her. I didn’t realize this seemingly trivial change was a profound shift. I wanted her to spank me if I upset her. There is a very good reason for wanting this. Mrs. Lion has a lot of trouble expressing anger. It’s incredibly rare for her to growl or snarl at me. Instead, she internalizes the anger, and it festers until she starts ignoring me. This shuts down communication and makes us both unhappy.

I figured that if we simply added rules that covered pissing her off, she would have an easy way to show me how she was feeling. If she can spank me for not setting up the coffee pot, she should be able to do it for upsetting her. It didn’t work out that way. I think that the same internal stresses that prevents her from growling at me, also stops her from spanking me.

We agree that spanking to cover interrupting her and other thoughtless behavior would be useful. She pointed out that learning to snarl would also help. I agree. She also worries that if she spanks me when she is angry would cause her to get carried away and hurt me. I disagree. She has enough self-control to spank me safely, even when upset. Sure, she might make it worse for me, but she wouldn’t actually injure me.

It isn’t that I think it is important to spank me while she’s upset. It’s important to remove barriers that prevent her from expressing her feelings. She also worries that maybe it isn’t just me that upset her. Maybe it was work or something else that contributed to  her upset. Sure, it could be. My point is that for the dual purpose of removng barriers, and spanking me because I want it, she shouold disregard those other factors.

This is all very easy for me to say, but difficult for her to do. My suggestion is that she keep in mind that I want her to find more reasons to paddle me. I’m asking her for that. Any reason that lands me on the spanking bench is a good one. If we look at this objectively, the purpose isn’t fairness or justice; it’s finding reasons to do something I want. It’s the same game if I forget the coffee pot or i interrupt. Oops, you know what happens now. You always smile when you say that, Mrs. Lion.

Merry Christmas! We didn’t exchange gifts. We were supposed to be going away in February to see my son receive his lieutenant’s bar when he completes his residency for his physician’s assistant training. However, the landlord sprang the whole “get out of the house” thing on us and we can either afford the time and money to move or to go to the pinning ceremony. You know which one we’d rather do, but adulting is hard. Anyway, we are each other’s presents again this year. It’s a present I don’t mind receiving year after year.

The other night, Lion brought up when I said I thought I’d get bored with him. He asserted that he’s not a boring person. He’s been on all sorts of adventures and met all sorts of famous people. It’s true. He is not a boring person. However, what I actually said was that I worried I’d get bored with BDSM. While there is variety, it’s pretty much the same stuff over and over again. And for a long time, he got sex every night, although not BDSM every time. When he brings up the boring thing, I’ve always corrected him and each time, he seems surprised.

Obviously, I can’t say I didn’t sign up for this. I agreed to spank him all those years ago. In my defense, I was probably already starting to fall in love with him at that point whether I knew it or not. It seemed harmless at the time. I’m not saying it’s not harmless now. With the benefit of hindsight, would I have answered differently? We’ve certainly had more good times than bad. Over the years, he’s told me he can give up BDSM if I don’t want to do it anymore. I believed him the first time. Maybe I believed him a little bit the second time. But it’s not something he can give up. I don’t even want him to.

That said, I guess I do take breaks from it from time to time without really realizing I’m doing it. It’s not foremost in my mind, for the most part. Lion realizes it. Eventually, he gets whiny about it like yesterday’s post. Poor Lion isn’t getting enough attention. It’s the end of sex (and the world) as we know it. It’s not. The pendulum will swing back in his direction. Sometimes he’s just not a patient person.

Our connection to blog subscribers is broken. It’s been that way for over a week. So far, tech support has been unresponsive. It’s probably the holidays. If you subscribe to mail notifications of our posts, we apologize for this issue. I hope it is resolved soon.

I have to admit that I’m confused. Mrs. Lion has been writing about wanting to spank me, play, and have sex. Yet, in real life, she has been distant and apparently uninterested in anything involving me. This afternoon (Sunday), I asked what she had on her agenda. She responded that she planned on clearing some cartons in the living room. Not even slightly promising.

Is she waiting for me to ask her to spank me? That makes no sense at all. When it comes to sex, for the last couple of months, I have had to ask her. That’s uncomfortable at best. I guess it’s time to give up. She is absolutely uninterested. Yesterday, she wrote (“A Nice, Long Weekend“) that she owes me a spanking for interrupting her. Once again, in real life, she’s been silent.

This is one of those situations that I’m not well equipped to handle. Here’s what I face. When I finish this post and go into the bedroom to watch TV, she will tell me that I was busy watching TV, so she didn’t have a chance to do so (fill in the blank). If I stay here in my office, I’ll get the same answer. There’s nothing I can do or not do that will trigger anything interactive.

If she decides to read this post before it’s too late to play, she might respond verbally. I’m not counting on it. My guess is that she’ll do the cartons, water the epiphytes, and then go back to her iPad. If she reads my post, there’s no guarantee that she will respond. Her usual comment is, “It was a good post.” The subject matter is ignored.

No matter. I love her and will spend the rest of my life with her.

Mrs. Lion has four days off for Christmas. There’s no point in house hunting until after New Year’s Day. In other words, we have a long weekend free. I dropped a very unsubtle hint that we haven’t played in a long time. According to the counter on this site, it’s been 49 days since my last spanking. Looking into the record book, the prior record was 38 days back in June.

She said we could take a trip to the oriental market. I suggested that she could get some ginger for figging. No response to that idea. Several weeks ago, we got a new, nasty paddle that hasn’t been tried. We also got some new restraints–Mrs. Lion keeps misplacing the ones we already have–they’ve never been tried either.

Are you sensing a theme here?

It’s likely that she’s lost interest in BDSM, at least for the last couple of months. It’s true that she’s never really liked doing more than CBT. If I asked, she sometimes did some anal play as well. But that’s pretty much all.

Maybe we’re done with BDSM as well as fucking. I truly miss both.

Of course, there is a lot more to life than sex and sex play. We have the other stuff in spades. When it comes to sex, you know what they say…

You can lead a lioness to…