Christmas came early for Sarah Wilson as she turned a $1 Encore ticket into $100,000 at the register.

Playing the lottery on and off for about 20 years has finally paid off for the mother of four as she plans to invest her winnings and host a large Christmas dinner for her family.

“I checked my ticket at the store, and to my surprise, I won big,” she said while visiting the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto to collect her winnings. “I couldn’t stop saying, ‘shut up!’ ”

When the 42-year-old Cambridge bartender told her boyfriend she had won, he was also in disbelief.

“It still hasn’t set in,” she added. “I’m very emotional. When I found out about my win, I was laughing and crying at the same time.”

Encore can be played in conjunction with most lottery games for an extra $1.

The winning tick

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