The topic of Hawaii came up Tuesday at a press briefing at the White House and generated a few chuckles.

According to a transcript, Press Secretary Jay Carney took this question on the topic of how long President Barack Obama intended to stay in Washington to work with Congress.

Question: “Jay, I just want to put a finer point then — are you saying there’s a scenario that’s possible, on Dec. 25th, where the president wakes up and ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is on, and he puts on his Christmas sweater in the White House, and he’s all alone and his family is in Hawaii?”

Carney: And he and (House Speaker) John Boehner (laughter) —

Q. “He invites John Boehner over and — is it possible that he spends Christmas alone at the White House?”

After some banter and more laughter, Carney said: “Look, I’m reluctant to say where he’s going to be on which day because I don’t want to make this about him. And also, it is a very fluid situation. Today, the House — or overnight, the House abruptly avoided voting on the available Senate bipartisan compromise to engage in some political theater, and then — but what remains true is, although they have done that, is that available bipartisan compromise is still there, or is still available. So it’s hard to know what tomorrow is going to look like, what the next day is going to look like, as this saga continues.”