US President Barack Obama shops at Best Buy in Alexandria, Virginia December 21, 2011. Obama was in Alexandria doing some Christmas Shopping and stopped in a pizzeria for lunch.[Photo/Agencies]

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia - With his wife and daughters already in Hawaii for the holidays, President Barack Obama took his dog Bo shopping on Wednesday as he waited for congressional leaders to mop up a payroll tax mess that has kept him in Washington. Obama travelled with Bo, and an entourage of aides, Secret Service agents, doctors and reporters, to a Northern Virginia strip mall to buy treats for the three-year-old Portuguese Water Dog featured on the White House holiday cards this year.