Say aloha to Ashley Hobbs, Playmate of the Month December 2010. A natural blonde with jade-green eyes, she’s ¼ Hawaiian, and she exudes a sexuality best suited to warm water and wet bathing suits, not out of place in a tropical paradise. She grew up in Kailua, a beach town on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. “My middle name is Ku’ulei,” she says. “I don’t really speak Hawaiian, but I know that it means ‘beloved’. And that’s the way I feel right now – my friends and family have been so supportive, and they told me that the December issue of Playboy is sold out in Kailua.”

Ashley has been modeling since she was a kid – “I was an extra in a Barbie commercial,” she says, laughing – and when she turned eighteen, a friend of hers suggested that she submit her pictures to Playboy. “I wasn’t ready,” she says, “but a year or so later, another friend made the same suggestion, and I thought, ‘Why not?’”

She went to a casting at the Mansion in Los Angeles, and four weeks later was flown back to test for Playmate. “It was intense,” she says, “especially the Centerfold shoot. I was late to the set, didn’t eat breakfast and had to hold the same pose for twenty minutes under hot lights. I actually fainted.” An intern fanned her with a magazine, and she recovered in time to shoot the Christmas centerfold. Before she was Miss December, Ashley was a supervisor for a nonprofit organization – “Providing support services to individuals with cerebral palsy,” she says proudly – and was working toward a degree in communications from a local college. “I moved to Los Angeles so I could keep all my Playboy commitments,” she says. “I had intended to move back to Hawaii and finish my degree, but my modeling career has really taken off.” For now, she’s living and working in Los Angeles, and after a residency at the Bunny House, she’s good friends with her fellow Playmates. “Playboy is like a family,” she says. “I feel so lucky to have been given this opportunity, and I just want to enjoy the ride.” Ashley tells us about her past, present and future plans in her Facetime interview.

“I see true beauty in nature – the blue skies, exotic flowers and perfect coral reefs,” says the mellifluously mellow Ashley Hobbs. In particular, she revels in the splendor of her hometown, the beach community of Kailua, Hawaii, where the westward winds prevail and the sun sets behind the Koolau Mountains. “I can never get enough of all the colorful scenery!” Her parents moved their tight knit family from California to the island of Oahu when Ashley was just two years old. (Her mother is of Hawaiian descent.) “I was raised to keep my priorities straight and have a serious work ethic,” she announces. True to her hardwiring, for the past couple of years she has worked part-time as a supervisor for a not-for-profit organization while pursuing an associate’s degree in liberal arts. Lucky for us, she also found time to become Miss December. “These pictures are totally me,” Ashley says, “because I love Christmas, which for me is all about food, family and presents. And this year Hef has given me the best Christmas present ever!”

Though becoming a Playmate means she must temporarily relocate from her beloved Hawaii to Los Angeles – “I intend to raise my kids in a house with a white picket fence on the Hawaiian beach” – Ashley has found a new family to share her life with. “Hef and the other Playmates are so generous and sweet,” she says. “They have made me feel at home. It’s truly like having another set of relatives. I couldn’t be more excited!”