My first assignment for the paper without a necessary editorial bend. A group of elementary students celebrating their fund-raising success with a pizza party and limousine ride. My assignment had me arrive long after the children had disembarked, and I caught only the last three pieces of pizza going in. The challenge of creating 10 interesting and diverse photos in 20 minutes becomes even more challenging when there are only 10 people to photograph. For some reason you feel like you're taking pictures of the same kid over and over again. Some decent images after all.

There's nothing more entertaining than a stage full of sleepy elementary school children dressed as shepherds and angels. An hour of telling the Christmas story left them all but horizontal across the stage. I realized about halfway through the performance that none of my pictures managed to convey that this was a musical performance. In every image, children looked in all directions some singing, some not, wholly distracted. Great faces all over the place, but probably not quite what the directors were looking for.

Zumba has taken Louisville's South End by storm. Women of all ages, colors, shapes and sizes are shaking what they've got two hours a week. As I talked to women in the room, about half of them told me of the weight-loss success Zumba has brought them. A number of them said they had lost between 35 and 50 lbs. in the last year on two hours of exercise a week. Three older women in the front row were incredibly inspiring: a seventy-six-year-old in golden high tops, an 82-year-old and an 86-year-old (fourth above) who was headed to Tai Chi class afterward.

Spent the afternoon at a nursing home with students doing a practicum for their Certified Nursing Assistant program through the Clark County American Red Cross. It's amazing how a handful of smiling, young faces can brighten the mood.