BERLIN, Vt. (AP) – Gilbert Lussier struck a bargain with his boss at IBM: He agreed to wait two weeks before taking an early retirement – but only if he could have New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day off.

When you win a $4.475 million lottery jackpot, you’ve got some leverage. So, his boss agreed.

Lussier, of St. Albans, claimed his Tri-State Megabucks prize on Friday, a week after he bought a Megabucks ticket on his 51st birthday, letting the computer choose the winning combination of 6, 26, 27, 28, 31, 38 and 37. Tri-State Megabucks tickets are sold in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

He’s not entirely sure what he and his wife, Dolly, will do with the money. “After I retire, I’ll let the dust settle,” he said. “We’ve been throwing (ideas) back and forth. I’m not going to make a decision by myself. It’s with my soul partner,” he said, looking to his wife.

Although they haven’t made any decisions, the Lussiers are leaning toward investing at least some of the money in their family. Gilbert Lussier’s 81-year-old mother recently had a stroke, and Dolly Lussier’s 22-year-old daughter had a daughter in March who was born with cerebral palsy.

“The family will benefit from it, too,” Gilbert Lussier said. He and his wife are thinking of buying a house with a mother-in-law apartment so they can take care of his mother.

Vermont Lottery Executive Director Alan Yandow praised the Lussiers for consulting with a lawyer and a financial planner before even contacting the lottery commission, something Yandow said experts advise when someone suddenly comes into wealth.

Lussier took his time before he confirmed his win. He heard a report Monday on a Franklin County radio station that the winning ticket had been sold at the Maplefields store in St. Albans. “I said: Impossible,” he said.

He finished running his errands and then stopped at Maplefields, asking for a printout of the winning numbers. He compared them and believed he’d won. When he got to work, he spoke to his boss, who looked up on the Internet and confirmed the numbers.

“He said, “You better go home. You’ve got a family crisis,”‘ Lussier said.

And so he went home after about 90 minutes at work, finding his wife cradling their granddaughter. She wanted to know why he was home.

“I said, ‘Can’t I just come home to see my beautiful, wonderful wife? I’m a millionaire,”‘ he said.

“I thought he was joking with me,” she said, and then she became worried. “The way he looked at me, it looked like something was wrong with the family.”

They eventually asked a store clerk to run the ticket through a lottery terminal, which directed them to contact lottery headquarters.

As the initial shock wore off, the Lussiers decided Gilbert would retire from IBM, but he’s likely to maintain his odd jobs preparing income taxes for about 100 clients, installing auto and truck accessories and doing advertising for local bowling centers.

“I’ll have to keep busy,” he said. “I’ll go stir-crazy.”