I'm looking forward to Christmas this year. It's my and my fiance's last Christmas without a little baby to look after.

In Feb 2012 we'll become parents to little Samuel and will have the chance to teach him all the things we have learnt in my 32 years on the planet and in Emma's 26 years on the planet.

There so much stuff I want to teach my little boy. I guess these could be called my life tips. How to kick a football is top of the list of course. I was ok at football and played for quite a few local teams but I had some issues with my knees which slowed me down and I never got to where I wanted to be. I still love watching but it's not the same as beating your opponent and leaving him for dead then sprinting down the line to cross the ball in or have a shot on goal. Well I guess that's going to be a few years away but it doesn't stop me thinking.

There are lots of other things I feel I should pass on, things like, be polite, smile as much as you can and always try to have fun. Having fun is something that I should be thinking about more and more recently. I find myself working a lot and getting annoyed with the people I deal with on a daily basis. This got me thinking, I used to be much more of a laugh, always worrying about laughing more than the work. I now need to figure out how to be focused on work and also enjoy it just as much. I need to stop letting other people dictate my mood. I don't want to be one of these grumpy Dad's who is too stressed out from work to worry about my little boy and my beautiful girl for that matter.

I remember thinking back when I was about 15 or 16 that I couldn't wait to be about 65. I thought back then that I could skip all the difficult bits and I'll be old and wise and understand everything that's going on. I realise now that I'm not ever going to understand everything that's going on. I think when you get older you just start worrying about the bits that are most important and the bits that you might actually be able to have some control over, the other stuff can slide.

One thing you can't let slide, even though I have let it slide is the fact that you need to know how to cook and I'm rubbish at cooking but there is one thing that I can cook and one thing that I WILL teach my little lad to do and that is create a great Apple Crumble. This is my favorite pudding and something that will be part of both our lives. It's a shame he's not going to be able to eat it for a while as he's so small, but even as I write this I realise that I need to know what to feed the little thing and when I can start feeding him my favorite pudding. I think I need to start reading more baby books.

My theory on life now is not hurry up the all the bits you think will be tough, it's use these bits to make you who you are and of course eat lots of apple and rhubarb crumble