A woman from Kentucky is brimming with Christmas cheer after she recently won herself a $175,000 jackpot during a 'white elephant' gift exchange. According to the <a href="https://www.kylottery.com/apps/about_us/news.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kentucky Lottery</a>, Lori Janes attended her annual work Christmas party where she participated in a gift exchange during a classic game of white elephant. After the office manager's $25 T.J. Maxx card was "stolen" by another colleague, she was forced to settle with scratch-off tickets worth $25. Little did she know that her new pick would end up making her thousands of dollars richer. <img class="wp-image-1263185119 size-large" src="https://img.vt.co/2022/12/H8MNKT-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" />[[imagecaption|| T.J Maxx gift card on sale amongst other card choices. Credit: Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg 12+ / Alamy]] "Once it got to me, it was done and mine to keep," Janes told the lottery commission. "That's when everyone was telling me to scratch them off." After initially winning $50 on the first ticket, Janes then proceeded to scratch the rest of them, eventually hitting all 15 spots on her $10 'Hit The Jackpot' section. The lucky swap ended up winning her the game's top prize, which was a whopping $175,000. "Everyone was going insane," the mom-of-two continued. "People were getting their calculators out and double checking. A couple of people even scanned the ticket on the lottery's app, just to make sure." [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/WDRBNews/status/1603159153085669378]] "It was a twenty-five-dollar gift exchange, and I won $175,000!" she added. Janes' husband said that he couldn't believe the news either. "We figured she didn't look at it right, but then we heard people in the background celebrating, it became real." Only a few hours later, Janes and her family visited the lottery headquarters where she collected a check for her winnings which totalled up to $124,250 after taxes. Speaking to the lottery commission, the excited mom opened up about what she plans on doing with the large sum of money, explaining that most of it will be used to pay off her daughter's student and car loans. "This is so crazy, I'm truly blessed," she said. The lottery commission also added that the Sunrise Market located in Fisherville, who sold the winning tickets, will receive a $1,750 bonus as per the <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/12/17/kentucky-woman-lori-janes-wins-jackpot-off-of-lottery-ticket-gift/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Post</a>. <h6>Featured Image Credit: MARKA / Alamy</h6>

Woman Wins $175K jackpot in white elephant gift exchange at work holiday party

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