I'm trying to plan ahead for Thanksgiving week when we'll have family visiting. I made Grandmother Bread the last time they visited and everyone loved it. The raisin bread version was a big hit too especially with cinnamon in it. So my question is if I could make some loaves ahead of time, pop them in the freezer, and take out as necessary? There's nothing like fresh bread, but for my own sanity, I'm wondering if this will work. (Making bread is a new “hobby” for me so any help on how to freeze it or prepare ahead would be great!)

I've frozen it.  Freeze it as fresh as possible, as soon as it has cooled from the oven, and be sure there's no air (or as little air as possible) in the wrappings/bag it's frozen in.

Another thing I do occasionally is freeze it sliced and just take out a few slices at a time, as needed.  Again, slice and freeze as quickly as possible, as soon as it's cooled, and keep air out of the freezer package as much as possible.

Also, on a side note and slightly related, any time I have some Grandmother Bread left that has gone a little stale, it's Still Good!  Toast it!  Or put slices under the broiler!  This works good with using bread that's been frozen, too.  You want to have homemade bread for cinnamon toast on Thanksgiving morning but don't want to get up at 5 am to bake fresh bread?  Just take out some pre-sliced Grandmother Bread from the freezer.  Let it come to room temp (spread it out on your cookie sheet to defrost faster) for a bit, maybe an hour or two, then spread with butter and sugar and cinnamon and pop under your oven broiler.  No one will know you weren't up at 5 am starting bread when they taste it!

Can you freeze the dough after the first rise then set in a warm place to thaw and rise then bake?

I have not done this before, but if you think about it. It is exactly what the frozen bread dough you buy in the grocery store is. You set it out in the buttered pan to thaw and rise and then bake. I dont see why it would not work. And I think it is a great idea!

Amanda, I'm sorry,  somehow I missed this!  I don't know-I've done Grandmother Bread as brown and serve rolls where I let it rise the second time (shaped in rolls) then baked a few minutes, frozen, then brought back out and finished baking when needed, but I haven't tried it with actually freezing the dough.  Hmm.  Iinteresting idea, though!  I'm going to experiment and see how it works out.  If you experiment with it, let us know how it turns out for you, too!