Call it temporary insanity.

What else could explain driving like a maniac to Davis County on one's lunch hour to shop at a Kmart in Farmington?

This was no ordinary shopping outing, mind you. I was a woman on a mission. My toddler daughter was going to have a Tickle Me Elmo for Christmas. She would not be denied.

I'll never forget the feeling when I plopped the box into my shopping cart, probably the same sort of satisfaction that a big game hunter experiences when he or she finally bags that six-point buck.

A while back, we watched home videos of that Christmas. It all seems so silly now, the anxiety I felt when I couldn't get my hands on an Elmo. Worse was the envy I felt when my doctor, during a routine exam, told me that her toddler son had an Elmo and I "just had to get one."

The things you do for your kids, right?

Looking back, Elmo wasn't the big hit I had expected him to be. I think he may have even frightened my daughter.

Then there was my brother-in-law's take on the vibrating red stuffed toy.

"That's it? That's what all the hype's about?" he said.

I can take some solace in that I was not alone in my desperation. And I'm proud that I didn't hoard Elmos (there were plenty for the taking) and sell them at inflated prices to even more desperate parents.

More than a decade later, I'm embarrassed that I allowed myself to become so swept up in Elmo mania. When my now-teenage kids talk about what they love about Christmas, they never mention gifts they received in past years. They talk about how the house smells during the holidays, candlelight church services on Christmas Eve, food and beloved ornaments on the tree.

When I read about the prospect of toy shortages this season, I'm happy not to be in that boat. News reports say the top 100 toys will be hard to find this year due to lower inventories. With Christmas more than a month away, people are already lined up outside toy stores attempting to buy those hard-to-find toys.

Retailers didn't order large quantities of items because Christmas was a bust for them last year. Stores would rather run out of stock than be stuck with leftovers.

That means the competition for some items could be fierce, although parents can shop online, an option not available when I was Santa's helper.

But I predict some highly competitive auctions on eBay. Toy "scalpers" will be able to fetch a high price for the most popular toys because no one wants to disappoint their kids on Christmas. Some of the hot toys include Zhu Zhu Pets, which are interactive mechanical hamsters; Barbie Fashionistas, which twist their hips and strike poses, and Nerf N-Strike, which are toy guns that shoot darts.

Another hot toy is the Mindflex by Mattel, which is a helmet the measures brain activity. (There are days I'd be afraid to put it on for fear it would detect precious little brain activity.)

As it turns out, there's also new must-have Elmo toy, the Tickle Me Elmo Extreme TMX, which is far more sophisticated than the primitive TME of my daughter's generation. Tickle Me Elmo Extreme TMX can talk, laugh (of course), wave his arms, fall down laughing and then right himself. I must confess, the online video was fairly entertaining.

Let the mercenary scalping commence.

They're only little once, right?

Marjorie Cortez, who is crossing her fingers that the teenagers don't hit her up for a hard-to-find, must-have gift for the holidays, is a Deseret News editorial writer. E-mail her at marjorie@desnews.com