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A northern Iowa woman who won a $30,000 prize said the feeling was hard to describe.

“I don’t know if it’s really sunk in yet,” Debra Christianson told officials on Monday as she claimed her prize at the Iowa Lottery’s Mason City regional office.

Christianson, 64, of Lake Mills, won the first top prize in the “$30,000 Crossword” scratch game. She bought the ticket at David’s Food, 103 N. Washington St. in Lake Mills, and scratched the ticket at her kitchen table.

Christianson said she knew she had a big winner, but wasn’t sure at first how much she’d won.

“I couldn’t tell if it was nine or 10 words, I was just so excited and shaking,” she said. “I was trying to count them as I was scratching them off, and then I’d lose count and start all over.

“Finally, we just had to write all the words down on a piece of paper, and we counted them and there were 10. That’s when we knew.”

She said her husband, Terry, remained skeptical of the big win until they returned to the store the next morning to verify the win on the store’s lottery terminal.

Christianson said she plans to put some of her winnings toward home improvements.

The $30,000 Crossword game is a $3 scratch game that features 151 top prizes of $30,000 and overall odds of 1 in 3.52. For more information about this game, and the number of prizes still available, visit www.ialottery.com.