Hey you guys, thanks for the help.
The technique I used was to create a static page for my Main/Root category page - so the client could insert copy in it easily. I do that by modifying pages.tpl with an if statement to include categories.tpl - see
Beginners Example of Static Page with Dynamic Content.
I tried modifying categories.tpl to show icons (from within pages) but to no avail. I think i already tried mffowler's example code earlier and it didn't seem to work. Eventually I gave up and the client is happy not having the icons so if we figure this out now - I guess it would be to complete a mod for x-cart users' sake.