Family tradition makes Christmas even more magical
By Kate Northrop
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — An annual family tradition turned this Christmas into one to remember after an Iowa woman found out the lottery ticket in her stocking was worth $150,000.
An Iowa woman celebrated an unexpectedly lucky Christmas after receiving a suitably named "Money Gift" lottery ticket worth $150,000.
Taylor Caffrey of Grimes visited Iowa Lottery headquarters in Clive on Friday to claim a $150,000 top prize she was gifted on Christmas. There, she told Lottery officials about the magical win.
The 25-year-old explained that it was a family tradition to gift scratch-off tickets on Christmas, but no one has ever won as big of a prize as this before.
Caffrey's mother was the one to purchase the winning ticket, a $10 game called "Money Gift," at Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh on SE University Avenue in West Des Moines.
The stocking stuffer quite literally turned out to be a "money gift," and instantly won her a nice $150,000 sum. Two days after Christmas, she told the Lottery she plans on using the winnings to pay off debt from her college loans and hopefully purchase a home.
With Caffrey having officially claimed her prize, there are two more top prizes of $150,000 remaining in the $10 "Money Gift" scratch-off game, which launched in October.
The overall odds of winning any prize in the game are 1 in 2.83.
(Click to display full-size in gallery)
wow thats great congrats
Happy New Year 
Mom: "Hey Taylor, I meant to put that ticket in my stocking"
Daughter: "Sorry mom, I already paid off all my debts and made a down payment towards my home. I have $200 left. You are welcome to visit, I will make sure you have an ensuite bedroom just for you"
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
There is bound to be some resentment harbored by other family members there over this. Of course they won't show it but they should have had an agreement on any ticket over a certain amount like 10k or more to split it all equally among them. Bad gift to give if you play the lottery yourself. It is a lose lose proposition. Either the gift is worthless or this could happen. A ticket you usually buy for yourself gets gifted and wins. She cleverly announces that she is going to pay off her student loans and then buy a house. There it all goes for sure so none of them can hint around for a loan.
We are humans, and bear emotions and feelings both good and bad in equal measure.
One family member in their mind are thinking, it should have been me.
An older sibling would resent a younger one winning.
A married sibling with a family and kids would argue that they needed the money more than the winner.
The chain of thoughts in people's heads are endless.
If the mom still has morgage payments ..... Mmh you know what she would be thinking.
It's great she won, but such winnings can cause more rift than unity in a family.
I would never gift any one a lottery ticket, I wouldn't even buy a ticket for the store clerk.
I would rather give you money and you decide what to do with it.
Can you imagine gifting someone a 1 billion winning ticket??
I am not mean and neither am I selfish, but I wouldn't also want to put myself in such a situation.
Congrats Taylor enjoy the New Year and maybe splurge a little on Mom.