The kids are all asleep by 8pm! But how?!

Lisa and Maggie were already asleep in the car when Marge picked me up from work at 7:15pm.
Bart had just finished an hour of Track and Field training, so he wasn't in the mood to talk either.

Usually when I carry the girls into the house and put them on their beds, they wake up immediately. Not this time. And when I turned to ask Bart to have a shower, he was already asleep in bed (in his track gear of course)

I was stunned. It was barely 8pm. Usually at this time, the kids are doing all they can to stay awake. And tonight, they were out cold without even a whimper.
I asked Marge to explain this phenomenon.

She couldn't. But she did share some observations which may or may not have had any bearing on this amazing miracle:

• Today was the first time in a long, long time that I woke up at 7:30 to have breakfast with Bart. He is a very early starter. Too early for me. But we'll try to change that. We had a good chat about current events and global warming.
• Lisa and Maggie did not have a nap during the day. They were preoccupied at Marge's women's group this morning. Maggie had a small accident involving boiling water. She managed to bump someone's cup and splashed some onto herself. It scolded quite a prominent 'V' shaped mark on her chest, about the size of a 20c piece. But she's over it.
• Lisa was already falling asleep during dinner at 5pm.
• Desma's funeral is tomorrow at 1:30pm. I'll look after the kids while Marge attends.
• As Maggie lay sleeping just now, Marge whispered 'I love you Maggie' into her ear. Our baby stirred and groggily mumbled back to her. Don't know what she was trying to say, but it was priceless.
• It's only 4.5 weeks till Christmas!

This post is heading towards the boring zone. Better quit now, before the blog police catch me rambling.