Ontario woman wins big lottery prize after getting ticket in 'Secret Santa' work gift exchange

An Ontario woman is $250,000 richer after she won the top prize on a lottery scratch card given to her in a "Secret Santa" gift exchange at work.
Welland, Ont. woman Jennifer Lafleur said she scratched the 'Merry & Bright' lottery ticket when she got home from work on the first night of her Christmas holidays and said her heart starting pounding when she realized she had won.
She told the OLG she texted her husband immediately and told him to come home.
"I passed him the ticket and he asked if it was real, then gave me a big hug," the 41-year-old told the OLG.
The health industry employee said she plans to pay part of her mortgage and also put money aside for her children’s education.
"I'd also like to invest and save some for a family vacation," she said. "I have lots of decisions to make."
The OLG says 'Merry & Bright' scratch cards are available during the holidays and cost $10. The top prize is $250,000.
Last week, the OLG announced two best friends, who used to be married, won the $44-million Lotto Max jackpot.
The OLG said Elizabeth Lumbo and her ex-husband Arlene Lumbo will each take away $22,011,636 after winning the July 20 draw.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
McDonald's to sell its Russian business, try to keep workers
More than three decades after it became the first American fast food restaurant to open in the Soviet Union, McDonald's said Monday that it has started the process of selling its business in Russia, another symbol of the country's increasing isolation over its war in Ukraine.

Ontario driver who killed woman and three daughters expected to be sentenced today
A driver who struck and killed a woman and her three young daughters in Brampton, Ont., nearly two years ago is set to be sentenced today.
White 'replacement theory' fuels racist attacks
A racist ideology seeping from the internet's fringes into the mainstream is being investigated as a motivating factor in the supermarket shooting that killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York. Most of the victims were Black.
'Hero' guard, church deacon among Buffalo shooting victims
Aaron Salter was one of 10 killed in an attack whose victims represented a cross-section of life in the predominantly Black neighbourhood in Buffalo, New York. They included a church deacon, a man at the store buying a birthday cake for his grandson and an 86-year-old who had just visited her husband at a nursing home.
Justice advocate David Milgaard remembered as champion for those who 'don't have a voice'
Justice advocate David Milgaard, a man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and spent more than two decades in prison, has died.
First patient in Quebec gets approval from Health Canada for magic mushroom therapy
In Montreal, a pioneering clinic in the emerging field of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is about to become the first health-care facility in Quebec to legally treat depression with psilocybin.
Total lunar eclipse creates dazzling 'blood moon'
The moon glowed red on Sunday night and the early hours of Monday, after a total lunar eclipse that saw the sun, Earth and moon form a straight line in the night sky.
Lacking vaccines, North Korea battles COVID with antibiotics, home remedies
The isolated state is one of only two countries yet to begin a vaccination campaign and, until last week, had insisted it was COVID-19-free.
EU's Russia sanctions effort slows over oil dependency
The European Union's efforts to impose a new round of sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine appeared to be bogged down on Monday, as a small group of countries opposed a ban on imports of Russian oil.