Well, it's official. I'm pleased to deliver some fun and happy country news for this holiday season--Carrie Underwood is engaged!

After a yearlong courtship that's for the most part flown under the radar--pretty amazing for a celeb couple--Underwood accepted a proposal from her boyfriend, pro hockey player Mike Fisher, on Sunday. Reps for the couple confirmed the engagement this morning.

There are no details available as of yet (except that the two are "excited and very happy") and a wedding date has not been determined.

Underwood has been tight-lipped about her long-distance relationship with Fisher, who is based out of Canada; perhaps learning her lesson after a string of shorter-lived romantic escapades (she's been linked to Dallas Cowboy Tony Romo and Gossip Girl's Chace Crawford). She did effusively praise him in the liner notes of her latest album, Play On, noting "you are the most amazing addition to my life." Whatever her motive, it appears things have worked out very nicely.

Guess what: This blog entry is about last night's American Music Awards. But it isn't going to be about Taylor Swift. At least--not primarily. (You all can sit down and wipe your brows in amazement. Right?)

Okay, so Swift sewed up 2009 neatly with her cherry-on-the-sundae scoop of five AMAs, including the top honor of Artist of the Year--beating out the late, legendary Michael Jackson--and two cross-genre wins (female pop/rock artist and adult contemporary artist).

But at this point, I'm not shocked or surprised.

This blog entry also is not going to be about Carrie Underwood's penchant of late for appearing in shorty-shorts (unkindly called a "diaper" by a few news reports).

Nor about Keith Urban's rather sweet reference to Nicole Kidman--not Sunday Rose--as his "baby girl." Nor about Rascal Flatts getting the country group award after a notable and probably stinging upset by Lady Antebellum at the CMAs a couple weeks ago.

Although all these things are interesting, one thing truly

Feeling a bit Scrooge-y this holiday season? Sugarland has the perfect cure. I dare you to watch the duo's brand-new video, premiering here on Yahoo! Music, and not get in at least a somewhat festive mood.

Jennifer and Kristian don't actually appear in their clip for "Winter Wonderland." However, you'll see an Elvis-impersonating snowman, a breakdancing reindeer, and a cast of other ridiculously cute little characters jiving along to Jen's boppy rendition of the holiday standard. The entire video is done in claymation and it'll remind you of those adorable Rankin-Bass Christmas specials you loved as a kid--Rudolph, Frosty, The Year Without A Santa Claus. (No, Snow Miser and Heat Miser do not make an appearance, but I'm putting in my vote for them for future video treatments.)

The video is in support of Sugarland's new and first Christmas album, Gold And Green, which hit the streets in mid-October and features five traditional holiday classics as well as five original songs fit for the

Hmmm...could Trace Adkins, the man termed "The Voice Of God" by none other than Gene Simmons, be moving from music into a fulltime acting career? The latest news from Traceville (which has not been a quiet place for quite a long time now--just last week, he scored two Grammy nominations) is that the singer will be taking a role in a new original series pilot.

The show is called Tough Trade, and, well, no surprise here--it's a drama about Nashville; specifically following the ups and downs of a musical family dynasty facing bankruptcy from too much debauchery. Adkins plays a bodyguard and family friend with the rather ironic name of "Scared." (Trace Adkins--scared of anything?! After facing Donald Trump?)

All in all it promises to be a good time--this is the first original series for new premium channel EPIX, and has the creator of the highly successful series Weeds on board, as well as some serious costars including Sam Shepard. The pilot is set to air in 2010 and filming began last

How do you really know when you've hit the peak of fame? Well, in Taylor Swift's case, when people start frantically conjuring up items about you in order to get everyone all hot and bothered.

Case in point: Friday, several gossipy outlets published "news items" suggesting that Swift "has released home video of herself on vacation, in a bikini"...soaking wet, looking hot, yadda yadda.

Searches for "Taylor Swift bikini" went through the roof. The Huffington Post got in on the action, proclaiming provocatively, "Looks like she had a good time!" while E! Online noted primly, "Her wholesomeness always shines through."

Good marketing, folks, but you're all a little late on the ball with this one. The oh-so-frantically searched "home video footage" was merely cut and patched together from the video for "I'm Only Me When I'm With You," which was released in 2008. Fans of the singer immediately identified this silly little fact, but others (more easily fooled) continued to discuss the

The nominees for the 52nd annual Grammy Awards were announced last night. How did country music fare overall? Not bad...not bad 'tall. Let's discuss.

First off--we've got Taylor Swift dominating things as has been her privilege this year. She's up for record, song and album of the year (as well as five additional categories, in both the pop and country genres). Are country fans a bit tired of Swift's massive exposure at this point? Well, that's debatable--but what remains inarguable is this has been one crazily successful year for Swift.

In fact, I will go so far as to say it's refreshing to see this kind of pure commercialism reflected in this year's nominations. At least it's fair: The last time we saw a tremendous country sweep at the Grammys, it was when the Dixie Chicks ran away with the show over drastically superior efforts by Justin Timberlake, James Blunt, Mary J. Blige, and Rascal Flatts, all riding on the questionable strength of a politically challenging but musically

By now, everyone has heard about Sgt. Kimberly Munley, the amazingly brave civilian police officer who ended the Fort Hood massacre on November 5 by shooting and disabling suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.

You've probably seen this picture, too, right?

Well, here's the entire picture, which was sourced from Munley's Twitter page.

Yep, that's none other than Dierks Bentley she's posing with! Munley got to meet the country star when he played an Independence Day show at the Fort Hood base.

Bentley was made aware of the photo, which was being broadcast all over mainstream news stations, by a friend. He promptly got on his Twitter account, called Munley a "hero and brave soldier," and asked for a meet-and-greet with her.

He apparently got his wish, tweeting only a couple hours later: "Was able to speak to Sgt. Munley and pass along my prayers for a speedy recovering. She's tough! And couldn't be more nice or humble. Real hero."

Just goes to show you: Country fans ain't nothing to mess

Far be it from us to be gossipy...cough! Cough! But we can never resist a bit of Taylor Swift chat.

By now, everyone knows Tay is starring in Valentine's Day alongside Twilight franchise star Taylor Lautner. Naturally, predictions of what-would-be-the-world's-cutest-potential-couple (Taylor Squared! TNT! The possibilities are endless...) started to arise, with some of the less reputable sources out there claiming to have actually spotted the pair kissing (off camera). Nothing confirmed, of course, and all smoochy photos were from the V-Day set and therefore not valid.

However, for whatever reason, this week the gossip hounds were out in full force, with several tabloids reporting that TNT is actually lit and about to blow. Lautner reportedly attended a Swift concert earlier in the month, leaving with Swift and spending some time at a lounge dancing. All of which sounds innocent enough to me.

However, things suddenly got elevated to the two actually being boyfriend-and-girlfriend.