X-Cart forums - can't get static pages to parse smarty tags

1) i've enabled the option to parse in general settings
2) i'm using an ebedded page for the static page
3) in root, i made a custom wrapper page, /aboutus.php, which consists of the following code:

Code:

<?php

include('skin1/pages/US/aboutus.html');

?>

This way all the content is editable through the admin panel and I can use smarty tags (which aren't available on root static pages for some reason...)

I've used the outline for home.tpl as my template to include the std. header, etc.

Code:

{* $Id: home.tpl,v 1.88.2.14 2008/07/15 12:07:39 ferz Exp $ *}  {if $printable ne ''} {include file="customer/home_printable.tpl"} {else} {config_load file="$skin_config"}    {include file="meta.tpl" }   {include file="rectangle_top.tpl" } {include file="head.tpl" } {if $active_modules.SnS_connector} {include file="modules/SnS_connector/header.tpl"} {/if} 



and the rest of my page html here....

The page prints out the exact code above, instead of parsing it.

Can anyone point out what i'm doing wrong?

This is on
4.1.12