A Christmas Tradition......of Sorts

When my husband and I moved in together it was fall. So together we geared up for the first CHRISTMAS together in our own house. We bought a tree at Walmart. We bought some decorations at Walmart. In his single days he had purchased a large number of really pretty ornaments.....longing for a home of his own to hang them in. We had a lovely tree covered in glass ornaments and various decorative, breakable objects.
I wanted a Nativity. My Grandfather Drake had been working on nativity sets when he died and I've always wished I had one of those. In lieu of that, we purchased a nativity at FRANKS and they didn't have any Holy Family sets that I liked. Actually, if I remember correctly, the ones they had were all the wrong size for the Creche we had picked out so we decided we'd figure it out later. And that is how a tradition started, much like the Queen's Santa.
You see, I had something very specific in mind. I wanted Fontanini figures. My mother had picked up ONE at a clearance sale at our small town department store (I think it was Murphy Mart or Grants) for a small amount of change. He didn't match any of our other figures, but he was beautiful. He was a bagpiper, which doesn't seem quite appropriate for the manger in Bethlehem......but who am I? I loved him, and I always knew that some day I would have a beautiful Nativity set with gorgerous Fontanini figures. It would be lovely and classy, and it would show that I have style. I realize that this isn't the message I should be striving for on Christmas......but, hey, first house/first Christmas together........you want everything to be RIGHT even if that isn't what it's all about. Right?
But you see, Fontanini figures are not inexpensive. They are, to be direct, a bit pricey. So I looked around for them. And was sticker shocked by the price on the heads of the Holy Family. They were COMPLETELY out of my bottom rung manager salary range. I looked. And I looked. And I just couldn't afford them.
I didn't want to settle so I chalked it up to the fact that I just wasn't going to HAVE a nativity that first year. We still had the tree and the lovely new place......
And then my husband, knowing the Nativity was important to me, had an idea.
He took a piece of white poster board and created this.....
You can't read the sign, but it's two sided.
One side says "They Day Before......." and the other side says "The Day After".

And it's 8 years later.

I'd still like some Fontanini figures.......but I don't know how I'd ever replace that silly sign.