“I haven’t even put up holiday decorations yet,” said Vanessa Freeman. With less than two weeks until Christmas, a $50,000 win on the Silver and Gold scratch-off has spurred the Baltimore County woman to action. “I’m putting my Christmas tree up today,” the happy winner told Lottery officials.

It was early yesterday morning when luck shined on Vanessa. As she does every morning, she bought one $20 scratch-off ticket and played it in the store. The game is played by matching your numbers to the lucky numbers. Vanessa scratched the first line matching one number revealing a $10,000 prize. “I asked the cashier, ‘how many zeroes is that’,” she said. “He told me to keep scratching because I might have even more matching numbers.” And indeed she did. She matched five numbers, each with a $10,000 prize, totaling $50,000. “I just screamed and screamed,” said the 55-year-old player.

Vanessa first shared the news with her soon-to-be-married daughter and then she called her husband. “He didn’t believe me and came up to the store to see for himself,” she said with a laugh.

The lucky lady said she had a feeling that something good was going to happen. The mother-of-two and grandmother-of-one will use the winnings for a new roof, her daughter’s wedding and Christmas. The winning ticket was purchased at the 7-11 Store, located at 2701 N. Rolling Rd. in Windsor Mill.