Just when the big bird was to go into the oven, about 12:38 p.m., a sudden winter gale knocked a tree down across wires and wreaked havoc with Christmas Day plans for people in about five homes in the 12200-block of Creston Street, near 216th Street, in central Maple Ridge.
The power only came back on when it was time to sit down for dinner, at 4:18 p.m.
Rolling power outages made cooking the dinner precarious for a few homes in Maple Ridge on Christmas Day as wind buffeted the Lower Mainland, caused trees to fall across wires and equipment to fail, leading to sporadic power outages.
A few other homes in the 23200-block of Silver Valley Road lost power at about 5:38 p.m., for just more than an hour.
Later that day, just after 8 p.m., fewer than five homes in the 21400-block of 124th Avenue, lost power for two hours, while just after 9 p.m., a few homes in the 13000-block of Alouette Road lost power for about 180 minutes.
Boxing Day saw a few more homes go dark in the morning and early afternoon on 240th and 208th streets.
However, according to B.C. Hydro spokesperson Jennifer Young, Abbotsford took the brunt of the storm that hit between noon and 2 p.m. on Christmas Day. The wind reached a speed of 63 kilometres an hour, and of the 12,000 power outages reported Sunday, most were in that city.
The highest wind speed reported Christmas morning at the Pitt Meadows Regional Airport was 29 km/h.
"I think most customers are fairly understanding. We're in storm season and you can't control the weather," Young said.
After coping with the wind, Lower Mainland residents were bracing for a soaking Tuesday and Wednesday with up to 70 mm of rain predicted in a heavy rainfall warning.