21 Jump Street (Tom Hanson)

Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning 1989

I woke up in the morning and trudged into my living room with my bathrobe on over my comfy pajamas. I yawned and looked toward the little tree I had put up earlier in the month, and I immediately froze. I scrunched my eyebrows together and tilted my head in confusion. There were more presents under the tree than there were the night before... in wrapping paper that wasn't mine.

... Santa?

There was a knock at the door which startled me. I tightened my bathrobe tie as I walked to to door, looking through the peep-hole before I answered it. I smiled and opened the door and greeted Tom.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, giving him a kiss hello.

He handed me a bouquet of red flowers and said, "I wasn't going to let you wake up on Christmas morning alone."

Tom wanted me to spend the night at his place last night, but I said no because he had already invited me to have Christmas dinner with his family, and I had Christmas Eve dinner with him the night before. I didn't want to latch onto him and become a burden or a nag.

I let him come inside and he whistled toward the tree, "wow, where'd those come from?"

I rolled my eyes and chuckled, "what time did you really get here and break into my home?" I smelled the beautiful flowers and headed to the kitchen and waited for his response. I grabbed a vase from under the sink and filled it with water, added a penny to it, then I put the flowers in it and set it on my little dining table that rarely gets used.

He kicked off his shoes and said, "it's not breaking in if I have a key. But it was just a few minutes before you woke up."

"Uh-huh," I chuckled. "I was going to make cinnamon rolls, would you like one?"

His eyes lit up at the thought of delicious cinnamon rolls, "yes, please."

I had some instant cinnamon rolls that I just needed to tear from the packaging and put in the oven. Once those were baking, I sat with Tom in front of the tree. We put it up together and decorated it shortly after thanksgiving.

"Open yours first," I insisted and tossed a present his way. All the presents under my tree were either for Tom or my Jump Street team. I got Fuller a watch, Judy a pair of big statement earrings, Doug a football phone, and Ioki some hair oil. I even bought something for Blowfish, a book called 1001 Things to Look Forward To When Your Kids Move Out. I meant to give it to them last week when we had our annual Christmas party, but it completely slipped my mind. I was going to give it to them after Winter Break instead.

Tom set the box down and tore apart the snowflake wrapping paper. He ripped the tape off the cardboard box and pulled out a Panasonic video camera. His eyes widened at the newe piece of technology and held it delicately in his hands.

"It's so small and light!" He said and brought the camera viewfinder up to his eye, "how did you get your hands on this?"

I smiled at his joy, I was so happy he liked it. I said, "at that new electronics store downtown. I figured that we should start documenting ourselves and our life. We have spent so much time pretending to be juvenile, we haven't had time to focus on ourselves."

"How does it work?" He asked, handing it to me.