I'm a newbie breadophile and I've been baking nonstop for about three months.  Most stuff I make is good, with the occasional clunked.  This came out so good I wanted to share.  We had a large family gathering on Christmas Eve so I wanted to make a special bread.  I found this recipe on Food Network's site...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/three-tiered-braided-christmas-bread-recipe/index.html

It's essentially three separately flavored bread loaves braided into one big un, the flavors being olive, sun dried tomoato and pesto.  The only thing I changed in the recipe was instead of making the three pastes to flavor the bread I bought 8-ounce containers of pre-made from Whole Foods.  At $4 a pop it was cheaper in the long run and saved some time on an already hectic morning or party prep.  The picture below shows the pre-baked loaf before the final rise:

Here's the finished product:

It was a jaw dropper once it was on the table, people were blown away.  It's relatively simple to make except my wife had to explain how to make a braid.  The crust was great, the bread itself was super moist and tasty.  I didn't take a picture of the crumb because I didn't want to dig into it before the guests arrived and when they did I was too busy playing host to snap a shot.

Overall a highly recommended project for a special occasion.

I'm keen to see what everyone else is baking for the holidays this year.

My wife figures my bread is now good enough that we can have it on Christmas.  Her family is Swiss and usually buys quite an assortment of breads for breakfast on Christmas morning.  Attached is a photo of day one's baking ... 2 pain au levan, 2 pecan & cherry pain au levain, and a batch of Mark's Portuguse Sweet Rolls.  Day two (tomorrow) is a whole wheat sourdough, rye and challah.