The office holiday celebration will probably be attended by every employee at Harmon Dental Center in Louisville, Kentucky, next year.
At this year's celebration, office manager Lori Janes won a $175,000 lottery ticket. She explains to TODAY.com that they weren't even planning a party, so it was quite unexpected.
She says, "This was the first year we chose to do this. "She claims that the gift-exchanging takes place at a lavish dinner that the business's owner, Dr. Bradley Harmon, normally brings the entire employees and their spouses to.
But this year, he just wanted everyone to unwind, so on December 13, he had lunch sent to everyone, and during their break, they traded gifts.
"OK, that's terrific," Janes recalls saying to herself. "I think I was the last one to enter. Pick your number, then we'll eat, and then we'll start our little Santa exchange, where we have regulations that we put in place, they say."
Twelve other participants, according to Janes, each selected a number to determine who got to choose their present first. The sole restriction was that gifts may only be taken twice. The final receiver can then open it after that.
Janes claims she picked number four and the winner of gift card to TJ Maxx worth $50 was stolen by the person who drew number nine. Then Janes took five scratch-off lottery tickets from another person.
""Lori, it's dead now because no one else gets to take that from you," said Dr. Harmon's wife. I ask, "Really?" "Start scratching off," they say. Let me tell you something, I won every single one of those tickets."
The first four victories combined for less than $60, but Janes began playing the final game, "Hit the Jackpot," which was black and gold. Due to the fact that her husband's birthday is on December 2 and her daughter's birthday is on December 14, two of the five numbers on the card, 2 and 14, indicated that this time would be different.