Sleep? Where? What is that?

Most people know I am a Mom. Right now, I am a tired one.

My daughter and I have a unique bedtime routine. This has been since she was about 15 months old and showed her extraordinary climbing abilities. My fear of her cracking her head off the floor meant I removed the front rail of her crib and replaced it with a child's twin bed safety rail. It allows her to get out of bed without diving over the top. but she won't lay in her bed alone ad go to sleep. She likes to lay next to me and I refuse to let her sleep in our already snug full size bed.

Our routine consists of getting a bath, jammies, a warm sippy cup of milk and her snuggle(s). We head up to her bedroom around 930-10pm, close the door with just her night light and the radio on low, and lay on the fluffy rug my mom made for her that is right next to her bed.

Now the fluffy rug is made of very thick hook latched yarn. It's soft. I have 2 pillows, 2 blankets (1 for me. 1 for her) Ideally, she drinks her warm milk, lays down and falls asleep next to me. After the required waiting period, I pick her up, put her in bed and go on about my business for the rest of the evening. What usually happens, is that she plays a little, we talk and then she falls asleep.

Lately its not been working. Instead of sleeping by 1030, its more like 1130- midnight. And this is just not working for me. I need to clean, do laundry, and still like to get a nice quiet hour to myself (usually at the PC) before I crash. Last night. It was 230 am!!! Because she fell asleep in the car for 20 minutes. On the way home from my stepsister's.... I blame winter for this. I blame shorter days for this. I don't know if I can do this any better. Its hard to reason with a 22 month old about bedtime. I really don't mind our routine. We get this special mom/daughter time. I just wish it wouldn't last all freaking night. Any suggestions?