Karen and Anthony Shaw Million Pound Lottery Ticket

01/01/2012 : ELATED CHRISTMAS PRESENT WAS A MILLION POUND LOTTERY TICKET
 
A pleasant festive season surprise for this UK couple
 
It took a while for a UK family to find out that they were newly-minted millionaires this week, thanks to a forgotten and unchecked lottery ticket which lay under their Christmas tree for days before being noticed.
 
It turned out to be a million pound sterling bonanza for Karen and Anthony Shaw when they finally got around to checking the numbers on the Euro Millions ticket.
 
Karen Shaw, 44, bought four tickets at a local supermarket, which she put in an envelope among the presents. It was only after opening presents with her husband, Anthony, two days later that they decided to check the numbers, discovering that they had won GBP 1 million in the December 23 draw.
 
"We eventually all sat down around 4pm on Christmas Day to open the presents and I remembered the tickets," said Karen, adding that her son was cross-checking the numbers on his cell phone and said: "I think its a winner!"
 
At first no one in the family could believe their good fortune, but once the news had sunk in there were plenty of ideas on how to spend the windfall.
 
Some of the money will be used to buy a property each for the couple's son and daughter; then they plan a luxury cruise to Alaska for the family.