Paris Hilton spent her first day of freedom yesterday with her family at their Bel-Air mansion.

Her aunt Kyle Richards told People magazine that extended family and friends visited the heiress, taking with them gifts of flowers and balloons. Kyle added: “She’s very happy to be home - very, very happy.”

“I think she’s just excited to be at home and be with her family.”

Deliveries of flowers - and a white frosted cake with the words “Welcome Home” written on it - were received at the Hilton home throughout the day and inside the house, a source told the New York Daily News that Kathy Hilton presented her daughter with a soft, luxurious blanket as a homecoming gift since Paris complained about being constantly “cold” in jail.

The source added that Paris’ immediate post-jail plans were low key - “All Paris wanted was a hot shower and food last night” - and the family “stayed up talking until 4am” after her midnight release.

According to the source, the family are also planning to take party/vacation to celebrate Paris’ freedom but it won’t be the previously rumoured Las Vegas blow-out: “They haven’t decided yet, but it will either be the Hamptons for Rick’s birthday [in August] or Europe”.

In related news, Sheriff Lee Baca has stood by his earlier decision to reassign Paris to house arrest, even though he was later overruled by Judge Michael T Sauer. Speaking yesterday, he explained: “Our doctors said we had no solution to Hilton’s [publicly undisclosed] medical problems. None.”

“She was at a place where we couldn’t fix whatever that medical problem was with the resources we have. We knew this problem was not going to get better. We were placed in a very unusual and awkward position with Ms. Hilton.”

“As a sheriff in this county, I’m not going to let any inmate die in this jail.”

“What’s worth more a person spending time in a county jail for driving on a suspended license or a person losing her life?”

The Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Steve Whitmore added Judge Sauer was “prejudicial” to Paris’ case and didn’t believe the doctors pushing for her reassignment: “He made up his mind without ever seeing a medical report.”