Processing XML data in a SQL Server field

Has anyone cracked this? I want to process xml data which is contained within
a SQL server field. I'm using other fields in the table in the normal way.
The xml field actually contains numerous data values which I want to pass
into the the chart object.
So far there seems to be two options to me:
1) Export the entire row of the table to xml and then use a custom data
extension which knows about xml to read it. This route is described in Teos'
book.
2) Call out to a custom assembly and have it process the xml.
My views on the above are:
1) Seems clunky. Already have the data and now I need to export it to a file
and then read it back in?
2) Seems ok but how do I handle multiple items,, such as the data points?
Anyone have any other ideas before I wade in with my boots?!using a custom assembly works like a charm - We have entire XML docs stored
in blob fields and parse them on the fly to get the information we need form
them.