By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA–Donning a green T-shirt with the words “All we want for Christmas is to come on down,” Helena resident Missy Narkates was excited to see her family’s appearance on the popular TV game show “The Price is Right,” on Dec. 22.

Narkates and friends were all gathered around a TV the morning of Thursday, Dec. 22, for a watch party anticipating a special holiday family reunion episode of The Price is Right where Narkates and her family were featured.

At the beginning of November, Narkates said she joined her other family members in Las Vegas for what her family calls an annual “ November to remember” family reunion trip.

“It was my first time getting to go on the family reunion trip and I was really excited about it,” Narkates said. “I have family members from all over the place and on Nov. 6 we all piled into two big passenger vans and made the drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles to The Price is Right.”

For those unfamiliar with the show, contestants compete to win cash and prizes by guessing the price of various merchandise items.

“I grew up watching the show with my Nana and she passed away about four and a half years ago so it meant a lot to me that I got to be there,” Narkates said.

Narkates and her family left before the sun was up on Nov. 6 to make the roughly four hour drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and after waiting in line, handing game show officials their driver’s licenses and completing a short interview, the Narkates family made it into the audience where they were eligible to play on the show.

Narkates was not personally picked to come on stage to play, but a couple of her family members had the opportunity to come up front and the excitement from the family showed when the episode aired on Dec. 22.

“I think my favorite thing about the show and being there was just the excitement of being picked because you never know who it will be,” Narkates said. “It was fun that somebody from Helena got to be on the show.”

Narkates said that if she would’ve been called to the stage, she had already prepared a shout out list and was ready to go. She’s hoping she’ll get that opportunity next year.

Although Narkates and her family didn’t win anything on the show, they didn’t come away empty handed.

The Price is Right officials gave everyone in attendance on Nov. 6 a free smart TV and Narkates joked that part of the fun was trying to haul back 14 people with 14 TVs in two passenger vans on the ride home.

“I plan on going on the family reunion trip again next November and going to the show again,” Narkates said. “The experience overall was a lot of fun.”